


Wreathed in Smoke, Wound in Heather

by Blindvogel, seimaisin



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Beauty and the Beast Fusion, Alternate Universe - Fairy Tale, Beauty and the Beast Elements, F/M, Fairy Tale Retellings, background Vax/Keyleth
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-23
Updated: 2018-03-04
Packaged: 2018-08-24 06:20:09
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 16
Words: 44,246
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8360704
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blindvogel/pseuds/Blindvogel, https://archiveofourown.org/users/seimaisin/pseuds/seimaisin
Summary: Everyone knows a beast lives at Whitestone Castle, a beast that has stolen souls from the town for many, many years. Should the beast claim one of yours, they say, you take the compensation left on your doorstep and thank the gods it wasn't you instead.
When her brother runs afoul of the castle's monster, Vex'ahlia does the unthinkable and trades her soul for his. The bargain introduces her to the beast, and to the man still living inside of the monster. Now a prisoner at Whitestone Castle, Vex must find a way to stay alive, and perhaps a way to save those trapped with her - even the beast himself.





	1. Truth in a Tale

**Author's Note:**

> A twist on Beauty and the Beast. Updates planned twice a week, on Sunday and Wednesday (or thereabouts).
> 
> Explicit sexual content planned for future chapters, thus the rating. 
> 
> Blindvogel would like to dedicate this story to pearwaldorf, whom she still owes a Perc'ahlia story. :)

Chapter 1: Truth in a Tale 

Once upon a time, there was a boy who turned into a monster.

He wasn’t always a monster. He had a mother and father, and six siblings - a middle child of a loving noble family, living in Whitestone Castle as his parents ruled benevolently over the town below. All was well, until the day an evil sorcerer came to visit, and slaughtered most of the family in their sleep. This boy, the only survivor, made a deal with a demon in order to gain revenge.

In exchange for the power to destroy his family’s murderer, the demon demanded souls - human souls, ones he could corrupt and devour. The demon kept up his end of the bargain; the sorcerer died, screaming and alone. The boy, now a young man, retreated to the castle to live alone. But soon, people started disappearing from town - good people, people who were missed. An outcry went up, and a small group of town leaders marched through the forest to visit Whitestone Castle and confront the young man. Why should the town have to pay for his folly, they wanted to know?

They never returned.

Several nights after the party of leaders disappeared, townspeople saw a great flash of light come from the castle. Some said they heard a terrible scream echo through the forest. When morning came, there was a strange shimmer around the castle. You can’t see it, not all the time, but if the sunlight hits it just right, you can see it shining, a transparent barrier around Whitestone Castle. Those who know magic say it keeps the demon inside, so it can’t steal innocent townspeople on a whim.

… that’s not to say it doesn’t take townspeople, though. It does, even to this day.

Twice a year someone from the town disappears, a criminal, a deadbeat or a charlatan - someone deserving of punishment, someone who not even a single soul might miss. But if there is someone left to miss them, they say, a pouch with coins is left on the doorstep; the Whitestone crest burned into the leather, a mocking compensation for a life taken and a reminder to not wait up. 

***

The last light of day is already fading when Vex’ahlia returns home after a long day of work. There is no light behind the windows of the tiny hut she and her brother are sharing, and Vex sighs. It usually means trouble when Vax’ildan is not home by nightfall. It means he’s lost another job and his fingers have gotten into someone else’s pouch to make up for it. 

_One day the monster is going to get you if you keep stealing_ , she tells him every time when he returns home with his head hanging in shame. He never listens, and the monster never comes. And, well, Vex always forgives. 

Vex shakes her head and fishes a key out of her pocket when she reaches the door. She fumbles with the lock for a minute, the keyhole escaping her in the dark, until with a soft click it opens - and she stumbles over something lying on her doorstep as she enters the house. 

Her curse breaks the silence of the empty hut and she bends down to examine the object that tripped her. Vex picks up a heavy leather pouch, for a brief, glorious second wonders why Vax had left his haul on the doorstep of all places - and then drops it like a hot stone with a choked cry as she notices the crest burned into the leather.

_One day, the monster is going to get you._

“One day” is here. 

Vex can only stare at the pouch - the de Rolo family crest mocks her, lying face-up, with several gold coins pouring out of the top. All told, it probably contains more money than she’s ever seen at one time. With this kind of coin, she could buy a nicer house closer to town, and not have to worry about where her next meal comes from, not for a very long time. 

But her brother would be dead. Perhaps is dead, as she stands here, gawking at the terrible leather pouch with its terrible blood money.

The next few minutes are a blur. She grabs her heavy cloak, shoves the coin pouch into her bag, and locks the house again. There is no one around to see her run; their hut is the last occupied home between here and the Ashari, and the Ashari are the only ones separating her from the dark woods that surround Whitestone Castle. Vex runs mindlessly, her cloak flying behind her, heedless of her aching feet or burning lungs.

Keyleth sees Vex approaching the Ashari farm before she makes the front porch. “Vex?” Her friend stops on the steps. “Vex, what’s wrong?”

“I need to borrow a horse. And I need you to look after the house until Vax comes home.”

“Vex?”

“Please, Keyleth.” Vex can’t look her friend in the eye, and can’t begin to speak of it, not if she wants to remain calm. And she needs calm for what she’s about to do. 

Keyleth pauses for a long moment, long enough that Vex is afraid she’ll refuse. But then she nods. “Come to the stable.”

When Vex is seated on a horse, she reaches into her bag and hands Keyleth several coins from the cursed pouch. “Take care, Keyleth.”

“Vex, please …”

“Tell me,” Vex interrupts, finally meeting her gaze, “do the Ashari tell the version of the Whitestone Castle story that talks about a willing soul?”

Keyleth blinks, looking confused. “Yes. They say the monster will take a willing soul in exchange for a stolen one. But Vex, I’ve been up there, and … Vex!”

But Vex is already riding away. Keyleth’s protests die on the wind as she leaves the farm - and the town - behind.

She spurs the horse on, riding as fast as she dares. If there is one thing Vex remembers about the story, it’s that the trade, one soul for the other, has to happen before sunrise. Once the new day has dawned, the captured soul is lost forever.

Soon the dirt road leading through the fields gives way to a narrow path between tree trunks and Vex reluctantly has to slow down to avoid hitting a low hanging branch or the horse stumbling over a fallen tree. Unfortunately it also makes her more aware of her surroundings. The air is cold and still around her - the usual sounds of approaching night have disappeared. No breeze or sound except the hooves of her horse hitting damp earth and her own ragged breaths break the silence. It’s not natural, but nothing about this forest is natural. There’s a reason no one comes here, and the reason is the castle beyond, and whatever terrible things live inside. The eerie silence is terrifying, but for her there is only one way - forward. 

She tries not to think of what her brother is going through right now as she presses on, only of the moment when he will be free again, when she has fulfilled the promise she made to their mother and kept him safe. Not that she would have needed it. Vex would do anything for her twin - and so would he for her.

A loud growl somewhere nearby startles her and the horse, making it jump forward and run faster. Fear trickles down Vex’s back and she doesn’t turn, doesn’t try to reign in the horse, only holds on tight and prays to any god that will listen for the castle to be nearby.

It seems like she rides forever, but it’s likely just a few minutes before she starts to see lights in the distance - the castle, it has to be, there’s nothing else out here. She’s almost there. Vax is almost within reach.

The next moments play out as if happening to someone else.

The growls that have followed her grow louder, until it sounds like the creature is at her back. She gasps, and looks backward - at the same time as her horse rears, sending her tumbling to the ground. She lands in the mud, filth covering her hands and knees as she scrambles. Breath tickles her neck, but every time she spins around, she sees nothing. But the growling continues, soft but infinitely loud, sounding as if something is right next to her ear.

Vex tries to stand, but her cloak snags in something unseen, nearly choking her as she topples onto her back. 

_This is it_ , she thinks, terror making her thoughts seem almost clinical. _I die here, and Vax dies, and our lives have been for nothing_.

In the darkness, she can see the shadows of tree branches above her, swaying unnaturally in the stillness. And for a moment, she waits, wondering when death will appear in her view. 

Then, with a loud roar, a huge dark form jumps onto the road beside her - and with another jump knocks whatever was holding onto Vex’s cloak off it. Vex hears the fabric tear and instinctively scampers backwards, away from the hulking form of a bear - that pays her no mind, its focus entirely on the something under its paws.

Vex takes her chance, gets back on her feet and runs.

Fueled by fear she races along the path, towards the faint light of lanterns between the trees right in front of her. And then she finally breaks through the treeline and a cobblestone path appears under her feet. A closed ironwrought gate looms between her and the castle and she runs full force against it, stumbling as it gives way under her pushing hands. Vex slams it shut behind her and takes a deep breath for the first time since entering the woods. 

She is almost there. Vex quickly keeps going before the last pieces of her tattered courage leave her and she can’t find the strength to do what must be done. 

The castle towers dark and uninviting, no light behind any of the many windows in that awe inspiring structure. Towers, parapets and the big double doors leading inside are crowned with stone gargoyles, hissing down at her with their hideous faces. She wonders what light she saw gleaming through the trees - but then again, she might not want to know. Maybe the castle was leading her here for its own nefarious purposes. Perhaps the monstrous resident wanted to lure her here, not satisfied with just stealing her brother’s soul. 

And perhaps, she thinks, she’s stalling, letting her mind try to talk her out of what her heart knows she needs to do.

“Hello?” Her first attempt at speaking comes out a broken croak, so she swallows, takes a deep breath, and tries again. This time, she yells, her voice echoing through the darkness. “Hello? Come out here, I want my brother!!” She pounds on the giant doors, her fists making a disappointingly quiet racket. “Come face me, you monster! Or are you so cowardly as to hide from a woman?”

There is no response. Vex feels hot tears begin to streak down her cheeks. This is not how this ends. She has not made this journey in vain. She continues to pound on the door, until her hands feel bruised and weary. “Monster!” she screams. “Show yourself! You cowardly wretch, you steal our families away under the cover of night, but are too scared to look us in the eye. Face me! Monster!”

She screams until she’s hoarse. Still, she hears no sound other than her own voice, and her fists on the door. All else is silent.

_There must be another way. This can’t be it._ Vex frantically looks around, maybe she could break one of the windows, get inside? She has to do something, when this thing wouldn’t come to her, she would get to it. This can’t be it. 

One last time Vex’s fist falls against the door and she is in the process of turning towards the row of windows on the side when the wood gives way and the door opens silently inwards. She stops and stares.

For a moment she can’t make out anything past the frame; darkness, almost as solid as a wall, fills it completely. Until her eyes adjust and her gaze shifts - and it is not a solid wall anymore but a figure of wreathing smoke and shadows, tall and bulky with no discernible features past two blue pinpricks of light where one would assume eyes should be. It stands as still and silent as a column, staring down at her, and Vex feels her blood run cold and panic creep into her heart. 

_Mother, give me courage._ She swallows down her fear, and to her own surprise her voice sounds level, if hoarse from abuse, as she speaks - she has this one chance, she has to make it count. 

“I come for my brother, Vax’ildan. I come with a trade - his soul for mine.” When the figure does not speak, she continues, unable to bear the oppressive silence. “I am a willing soul,” she says, hoping against all hope this part of the story is true. “You cannot refuse me. Send my brother home, and take me instead.”

After another long moment of silence, the creature finally speaks. Its voice is strangely doubled, as if two beings speak at once. The loudest voice is a terrible sound, like a hundred swarms of buzzing insects. Underneath, the second voice almost sounds human, which is almost more frightening. “You do not know what you demand,” it says. 

“I know what I want.” She hates the tremor in her voice, but she can’t fight it. “I want my brother’s freedom. I will do what I must to secure it.”

“Your brother is a criminal. He is not worth your soul.”

“You do not get to decide what my soul is worth,” she snaps. “Or what my brother is worth. I am willing. I trade myself for him.”

“Turn back now.” The buzzing insect voice has not changed, but the human-like voice below it sounds almost … pleading? “Go back to your home. You now have the means to improve your life. Live, for your brother’s sake.”

“While you kill him, or do whatever it is you do to people here? No.” Vex squares her shoulders. “You have to take a willing soul. That’s what the story says. Take mine.”

A strange sound leaves the creature - somewhere between a low pitched buzz and a sigh. “Very well. I accept the deal. Follow me.” With that it retreats inside the foyer, giving Vex the space to enter through the door.

And to her horror she notices the pull inside her chest, drawing her towards the monster. The deal is struck. Her eyes dart upwards to the sky, for one last look at the stars above her, before she follows it inside and the door falls shut behind her.

Wall sconces flicker to life, illuminating a small portion of a wide, once grand but now dusty and derelict foyer - empty except for her and the monstrous form made of darkness. Against the light of the sconces Vex can make out soft plumes of smoke drifting off its lumbering body that is not solid, but a mass of constantly churning and swirling smoky tendrils. She shudders and has to force herself to keep her eyes on it as it leads her further into the castle on eerily silent footsteps. 

Lights come to life as it leads her along corridors and down a staircases, and extinguish when they have passed them, making her wonder for a moment what strange magic is at work here. While they walk it doesn’t speak again, for which Vex is grateful; the discordant duality of its voice frightened her almost more than the ever-changing shape of its body. 

Eventually - finally - they reach the cellar, and behind a door a corridor with a row of barred cells. Again it steps aside to let her enter and Vex rushes in, desperate to see her brother alive and unharmed. “Vax?” she cries.

The noise of shock comes from the farthest cell. “Vex? Oh gods, no, Vex.”

She runs to the cell, to find her brother sitting on a straw-covered floor, with only a sleeping pallet and a chamber pot inside. He quickly gets up to meet her at the bars, and covers her hands with his. “You’re going home,” Vex says, trying to keep the shaking out of her voice. “You’re going to get out of here.”

He just stares at her for a moment. “Vex’ahlia, what did you do?”

“I kept a promise.” 

When the smoke creature glides up to them, Vax steps back, shaking his head vigorously. “No. No, I won’t allow it. I’ll stay here. I can’t -”

“You have no choice,” the creature says, in its terrible voice. “Three times offered, the deal is made. She will stay.” 

The smoke envelops the lock on the cell door, and Vex hears a metallic clang. “Go to Keyleth,” she says, her voice sounding far away. “Tell her I’m sorry I lost her horse. You can probably take my place at the shop, it doesn’t pay very well, but it’s safer than what you were doing.” 

The door opens, but Vax doesn’t move. “Vex, _no_.” His voice is filled with anguish, and it breaks what little of Vex’s heart that was left intact. “I won’t - I can’t -”

“You can, and you will. I chose to be here. You didn’t.” She steps inside the cell and grabs his hands. “Go, please. For me. Get out, go live, that’s all I wanted. That’s all I needed.” She’s crying - she didn’t mean to, didn’t want the creature to see her this way. But her brother’s face undoes her. She throws her arms around his neck; he holds her so tightly that she has trouble breathing. “I love you,” she says. “I couldn’t leave you here.”

“But I’m supposed to leave you?” Vax’s voice cracks on the last word. “That’s not -”

“Enough.” Vex feels the cold smoke come up behind her, and she’s drawn out of her brother’s arms somehow. A dark tendril reaches out and wraps itself around Vax’s arm. “Leave my home and never return. Your sister has given you a rare gift. Do not squander it.”

Neither twin can say another word before the monster drags Vax with inhuman speed out of the cell and up the stairs, out of Vex’s sight. She is left alone in the dark cell as the reality of her new existence crashes over her head. Sobs are wrecking her body and take the last strength left in it, dragging her to the floor where she curls in on herself in the damp straw.They didn’t even get to really say goodbye. She would die in this cell below this damned castle, never get to see the sky and the stars and her brother again and they didn’t even get to say goodbye. If Vex had needed proof that she was now in the hands of a monster, this was it.

To her surprise it returns after a few minutes. She only notices because the sconces on the walls light up - its steps are impossible to hear. With sheer determination to not let it see her break again Vex manages to sit up and modulate her breathing until the sobs subside, turn her despair into fury instead, before it appears in front of her cell.

“You could have at least let us say goodbye. I will never see him again and I didn’t even get so say goodbye!!” She yells at it.

There is no real face and no expression as it looks down on her. “It didn’t sound like you were going to. Now come, I’ll show you to your room.”

Taken aback and baffled Vex only manages a surprised “What?”

“Come! Or would you rather stay here?!” It snaps at her, the voices even more discordant while shouting in different pitches. 

She opens her mouth to ask more questions, but then thinks better of it. If it intends to give her better accommodations while she still lives, she won’t argue. She follows the thing from a distance, watching the smoke curl into odd shapes in the breeze created by movement. It leads her up the stairs to the main floor, then up the giant staircase in the main foyer. When they reach the second floor, they walk down a long, dark hallway. The farther they get from the staircase, the less light there is, until Vex can’t see her hand in front of her face. “Um. Um, excuse me?” she says tentatively.

She only knows it turns to look at her because she can still see the two blue dots that seem to be the creature’s eyes. “Why are you stopped?”

“I can’t see. I don’t - that is, I don’t know if I’ll trip on anything.”

“Oh.” The single syllable is the first thing she’s heard in a single voice - the human voice, or what she thinks is a human voice. But when it speaks again, the dissonance is back. “Just a moment. Light!” 

Slowly, lamps begin to flicker into being, lining the hallway from where she stands forward. It makes her shudder - what sort of magic is this, that this creature can command flame into being with only a word? At the same time, she realizes it has done this for her, so she forces her voice to work again. “Thank you.”

It says nothing; it simply begins to move again, and Vex can do nothing but follow. 

At the far end of the hall, it stops in front of a door, which opens without a touch. “The room is yours. Do not leave it after dark.” It waits for her to pass through the door before gliding back down the hall. The door closes behind her, and she hears the telltale sound of a lock tumbling into place. 

Now, Vex allows her legs to give out once again, sinking to the cold wooden floor and wrapping her arms around her knees. From here on out everything is uncertain and frightening. When would it kill her, take her soul? How long- Tears start streaming down her face and she makes no move to wipe them away. Who would see, who would care anyway? As her old life breaks down around her Vex cries and trembles until her eyes refuse to shed more tears and her body feels stiff and everything aches.

She doesn’t know how much time has passed but now that the tears are gone, leaving her body hollow and her mind empty, she gives herself permission to look around in the room that would be her cell for whatever time was left of her life. 

The monster hadn’t bothered to turn on the light for her again so she can only make out rough shapes without details in the soft moonlight streaming through the- windows! With a lot of effort Vex manages to unfurl her body and stumble through the room towards the set of tall windows, complete with a window seat. She can’t make out any details of the land surrounding the castle but craning her neck and looking upwards she can see patches of sky dotted with stars.

Another quick look around the room reveals the location of a giant four-poster bed. Vex sheds her muddy and torn cloak and dress, slips out of her shoes, before stripping the blanket off the bed and wrapping herself in it like a cocoon. She waddles back to the windows and sinks onto the seat, pulling her legs up until they press on the other side of the frame and she is wedged entirely in it. Her tears are flowing again, this time with a bit of relief - if nothing else, at least the creature has left her this, a view of the world she’ll never experience again. The stars are a small comfort, a bit of familiarity in this terrible, strange place.

She wonders if Vax is looking up at these stars right now. If he’s on his way home - or to the Ashari, as she’d asked - or if he’s still lurking here somewhere, hoping to rescue her as she’d rescued him. She hopes not, with all her might. There’s no escape for her, no loophole to be exploited. And as terrified as she is, she wouldn’t do anything differently, given the chance.

“Go home, Vax,” she whispers to the stars. “Live well, for me.”

Soon, exhaustion claims her, and the stars fade to the darkness of sleep.


	2. Interlude - Smoke Without Flame

Never in his life did he think it would happen a second time - an innocent soul come to trade herself for one of the criminals he picks out of the gutter. But come she did, hammering at his door and screaming for him until he opened it - he is sure if he hadn’t, she would have found another way inside the castle. Determination burns bright in her eyes, and despite his hope that his monstrous form would chase her off, she insisted on the trade. Three times he asked her to reconsider, three times she pleaded for her brother’s soul. There was nothing he could do after that, except offer what little hospitality he can muster. 

Whitestone is not a place for the living anymore. Only ghosts and shadows wander its halls - he is not sure the castle can cope with a living girl with bright eyes and a heart too big for this world. Not sure he can cope with her for the half year of hell that it takes for her to fade. 

_She is intriguing_ , the monster says. _We have not had such life here in quite some time._

“She does not belong here,” he replies. “She should have stayed home.”

_But she’s here. She made the bargain. I cannot wait to taste her._

The strength of his reaction surprises him. It’s been a long time since he’s felt anything but numb at his shadow’s appetites; truly, given enough time and no escape, a person can get used to anything. But this girl - this woman - her bravery has touched him. After all, he knows a bit about making deals with devils. “We’ll give her time to adjust. You’re not starving just yet.”

_Why? What purpose does it serve?_

“She’s innocent. She deserves a little consideration.”

 _Your way gives her a false sense of security. Your way is more cruel._ The voice in his head laughs, a scratching sound that makes him cringe. _I will do it your way._

That’s not what he intended, but it will do. 

He keeps pacing up and down his study, for quite how long he does not know. Time has lost much of its meaning and he doesn’t keep it as well as he used to. He doesn’t know what to do for his new guest - but Pike would. 

With quick strokes he pens a note for her to find in the morning; with only a thought a piece of his shell forms raven wings. With paper in its beak, the shadow creature swoops out of the room to deliver it. 

This leaves him with nothing to do but think - and wonder. He asks himself how she is doing, if she likes the room he had picked out for her. Before he knows it he is already halfway there, just steps away from her door. It’s madness - what should he care if she likes her room? If he was smart, she’d be in the cells yet. She’s a prisoner, no less than anyone else he’s hosted, and there’s no use becoming attached to her. She’ll be drained of all life soon enough. But her bravery - her bravery earned her consideration. A bedroom is scant comfort, but it’s all he can offer her.

Before he can think better of it, he pushes the door open. The first thing he sees inside is the large, empty bed. 

A moment of panic overtakes him - not that she’s escaped, that’s impossible, but that his constant companion will punish them both for the trouble. But no, there she is - wrapped in a blanket, asleep on the window seat. Part of him (that small human piece, the bit that shrinks a little more with each death) aches with empathy. How many times has he looked out at the moon, the stars, the forest beyond, and wished for his freedom? But freedom is not in his power to grant, not to himself, not to her.

He approaches her, but she does not stir. Carefully, he extends the dark limbs his companion grants him, and watches as she floats up into his grasp. He can’t feel her this way, but this form can more than bear her weight. Tendrils of dark energy surround her, mingling with her dark hair, forming shadows on the tattered shift she wears. It seems wrong, though, to watch the black smoke curl around her body. She is a creature of the light, trapped here in the dark because of him. Because of mistakes he made so very long ago.

He carries her to the bed, lays her out with her head on the pillow, and arranges the blanket around her sleeping form. “I’m sorry,” he murmurs, his true voice the only one he can hear. 

She shifts in her sleep, her eyes darting rapidly behind her eyelids. He wonders what she dreams of. Her brother, and darkness, and his own nightmare form, he guesses. 

Inside his mind, he hears a chuckle. _We are nightmare given form. We will never be anything else._

He leaves the girl to her sleep. He can give her that escape, if no other. 

It’s more than he’s ever had.


	3. (Un)favorable Acquaintances

For a brief, glorious moment, Vex doesn’t remember where she is. She wakes wrapped in a blanket, as always, and her only thought is _wow, this feels softer than usual_. She wonders if Vax is still home, or if he’s already left for work. And then she remembers that he lost his job.

And then she remembers.

She sits straight up in bed, clutching the blanket to her chest. Sunlight streams into the bedroom, giving her a much better look at her surroundings than she managed before. It’s a lovely room, she has to admit, if a bit dusty around the edges. The furniture in this room alone likely costs as much gold as it would take to run their tiny hut for three years. And she would have killed for a window seat like this in her house …

Vex remembers sitting in the window seat, but not getting up and going to bed. “How did I get here?” she asks aloud, her voice sounding small in the space.

Her thoughts are interrupted by a knock on the door. At least it’s a polite monster, she thinks, more than a bit hysterically. And as usual, her mouth works before her brain does. “If you remember,” she calls, “you locked me in, so why are you knocking?”

“Oh! Sorry.” To Vex’s shock, the voice is female. It’s not the monster who walks through her door, but a small blonde woman, wearing a sensible dress and carrying a pile of clothing. “I don’t know why he did that,” the woman says. “But we don’t get many visitors, which I’m sure doesn’t surprise you.”

It doesn’t, but the woman’s mere existence does. “Who are you? Where did you come from?”

“My name is Pike. I live here. I … well, I guess you might say I run the house, such as it is.” Pike gives her a small, comforting smile. “What’s your name? The note I got didn’t say.”

“Vex’ahlia,” she says, almost automatically. “I … I didn’t know there was anyone else here.”

“Don’t worry, I didn’t expect you to, really. As I said, we don’t get many visitors.” Pike walks over to the bed and unloads her pile of clothes at Vex’s feet. “I was not sure what would fit you, so I brought a few different ones for you to try on.”

Vex stares at her, dumbfounded. After all that has happened in the night this was the last possibility she could have imagined for her morning to turn out. “I don’t understand, why did you bring me clothes? What’s going on?”

With a small sigh Pike sits down on the edge of the bed, and fixes her kind blue eyes on her. “Well, firstly I thought you might want to put something on for breakfast that is not quite so thin as your nightshift, the castle can be quite drafty and cool in places.” Vex has the feeling that Pike rambles a little, but it is such a refreshing surprise to find another human being in the castle that she feels her spirits rise. “And, ahm, well…” Pikes sighs again and gives her a sad smile, “...you were very brave, you know, taking the place of your brother. The least we can do is make it as comfortable as we can. The only thing we can do, really.” 

Vex swallows the lump that has taken up residence in her throat and nods. “Thank you, I appreciate that. It’s much better than the cells in the basement, really.” She can’t suppress the hysterical giggle that leaves her at that thought. 

Pike tuts at that and purses her lips. “Those are absolutely out of the question. Now, how about a bath and then breakfast? You look like you could really use both.” She says the last bit with a warm smile, taking the sting out of the comment. 

Vex knows how she must look like; a bit on the thin side from the meager meals of the last years and probably still dirty from yesterday’s tumble into the mud. So when Pike holds her hands out to her, Vex lets the other woman pull her out of bed and behind the partition separating one corner of the room from the rest. Pike’s hands are firm and warm, a surprisingly calming presence in the madness that has become the remainder of her life. 

Another surprise is the enamel bathtub behind the partition that fills with hot water after Pike turns some knobs at its side. When she notices Vex’s incredulous stare, she smiles with something akin to pride. “A very handy invention of Lord Percival, isn’t it?” 

“Lord Percival?” 

Pike’s smile falters, just a bit. “Our employer. Your … host.”

“The monster. It has a name?” For some reason, that surprises Vex. Though honestly, the last day has been nothing but one surprise after another.

“The answer is yes, but that’s also a complicated question.” Pike pats her on the arm. “Go ahead, take a bath, I’ll be out there cleaning when you’re done. I didn’t exactly have the chance to dust before you arrived.” 

That elicits another hysterical giggle from Vex. It’s surreal - it’s almost as if she’s a real guest, at a real place, and not sitting around waiting for death. 

The water is soothingly hot, and melts away some of the aches she’s begun to feel from yesterday. She uses the soap Pike left at the side of the tub, and begins talking again, just to have a distraction. “You talk like there are more of you. How many people live here?”

“Just three of us,” Pike answers from across the room. “Myself, Scanlan, and Lord Percival. You’ll meet Scanlan soon enough, I had to convince him it was better for me to greet you on my own.” 

“Who is Scanlan?”

“Another servant, like me. We take care of all the things Lord Percival’s … ah, other servants cannot.” 

Vex is on the verge of asking about these “other servants,” but at the last moment decides she’s not ready to know. “How did you come to be here?”

“Oh, we’ve been at the castle since the whole de Rolo family lived here.”

Vex freezes. But that means - “That was more than a century ago, if the stories are right.”

“That it was.” Pike’s voice is sad. “There are a lot of things to tell you, if you’re going to be a guest for a while. There will be time.”

“But am I? A guest?” Vex draws her knees to her chest and hugs herself. “I’m here because - when is it going to come?” she suddenly asks, tears springing to her eyes. “How long do I have? Why are you being so nice to me?”

There’s a small, distressed noise from the other side of the partition. Then, a quiet question. “Do you mind if I come back there?”

Vex takes a deep breath. “No, go ahead.”

Pike slowly rounds the corner with an apologetic look on her face. Eyes downcast and a sad smile on her lips. She moves to Vex’s side and gently begins to untangle her hair as she speaks. “Because I’m sorry. You were not meant to be here, you deserved a different fate. But this is where we are and if I can do anything to make it at least a little better, then I will try. It’s purely selfish, you know? It helps me if I can do something, even if it seems insignificant in the sense of a greater scheme. Do you know what I mean?” 

Vex swallows and nods. “I think I do. But couldn’t you just leave?”

“No, we are all bound to the castle grounds. The magic barrier that keeps unwelcome visitors out also walls us in. Or rather the other way around. So, we cope as best we can.” Vex’s hair yields to Pike’s gentle fingers and opens to fall across her back.

“Then how was I able to get in?” Vex pauses. “It was because of my brother, because I could make the deal, wasn’t it?”

“Yes. There are a few loopholes in the magic.” Pike sighs and sits down on a stool near the tub. “And… to your other question… I wish I could make this sound comforting, but you are brave and are better served with the truth, I think.” A flash of a smile. “Half a year, six months is how long it takes for a soul to fade.”

“Six months,” Vex repeats. She’s not sure if the feeling welling up in her chest is hope or despair. “I didn’t think I’d be here that long.”

“Six months is a long time,” Pike says. “That could be a good thing.”

“How?”

The woman hesitates. Then, she takes a deep breath. “I don’t want to give you false hope. We’ve been here for a long time, and I don’t know of any way out of what’s in store for you. But once, I would have told you that the idea of being imprisoned here, trapped in stasis for a hundred years was impossible. Last week, I might have said that having someone else in the house to talk to was impossible. So I choose to think that maybe, your eventual freedom isn’t impossible, either.”

Vex looks over at her. “What about your freedom?”

“I try not to think about that any more.” Pike smiles sadly, then stands up. “Come on, if you’re done with the bath, I can show you around the house.”

After going through half of the pile of clothing Pike brought her, Vex finally finds a dress that mostly fits - it’s a bit tight in the chest and waist, but the fabric gives enough that it’s not horribly uncomfortable. “Maybe we can ask the Ashari to bring more clothing,” Pike muses. “You’ll need more things to wear.”

“Maybe,” Vex says tentatively, “we can ask them to bring my actual clothes. I worked in their shop in town, one of them is a good friend.”

“Is that Keyleth?” When Vex nods, Pike gives her a genuine smile. “She brings us food once a week. She’s very nice. I bet we could get her to bring your things. Well,” she adds, smile fading a bit, “as long as we’re allowed to. I’ll ask Lord Percival. It will be his decision.”

After slipping again in her shoes Vex follows Pike for the first time outside the room and down the corridor she had walked in darkness the day before. It’s less intimidating with soft sunlight falling through a few windows and dustmotes glimmering in the air. It had been nice once, this castle, Vex decides, when Pike shows her a few of the rooms along the corridor - parlors and sitting rooms and another bedroom. The colors have faded with age and dust has settled in most rooms - but she can still see that this once had been a friendly place, happy even, before tragedy had claimed it.

Pike doesn’t say much while they walk; the corridors seem to make her slightly uneasy. But when they reach the central staircase and the corridor to the other wing of the house, she stops and puts a hand on Vex’s arm. “This side is Lord Percival’s domain, best to stay away. He doesn’t like to be disturbed.” 

“And I’m really not keen on seeing it again.” Vex murmurs, keeping her voice low, not wanting to risk it hear her speak. Pike gives her a sad look, but nods and doesn’t correct her. 

Instead they descend the staircase to the first floor and the blonde leads them down another corridor and into the most welcoming room Vex has seen so far - the kitchen. “This is my domain.” Pike says with pride and ushers her to sit down at the table where a couple of covered plates are waiting for someone. “Breakfast first, before we continue the tour. Exploring is only half as fun on empty stomach.” 

Vex finds that she’s hungry, to her surprise. But honestly, it’s probably been a full day since she’s had any food at all. And the hearty potatoes and eggs that sit in front her look very good. “The Ashari are kind to us,” Pike says, nodding at the food. “Scanlan and I don’t need all that much, so they give us good things. We’re grateful to them.”

“I’ve known that the Ashari come up here every week,” Vex says slowly, “but I guess I never considered why.”

“There was a woman, back when … well, when it all happened. She was a friend, and she was the only person to come check to see if any of the servants were left alive. The Ashari still have magic, enough that she understood a bit of what had happened. So she swore that she and her family would take care of us, as long as we were trapped here. Without her, Scanlan and I likely would have starved long ago.” 

Vex takes a few bites, and feels her energy start to lift. “Am I going to meet this Scanlan, too?”

“Oh, I’m sure you’ll soon see enough of him to wish he’d go away again,” Pike says dryly. “It’s his day to clean in Lord Percival’s wing, he’ll be around soon.” 

Sure enough, after Vex and Pike spend a few minutes in companionable silence, Vex starts to hear distant whistling, which gets louder with each moment. She recognizes the song as a very off-color shanty she’s heard men in the town tavern sing late at night. She raises an eyebrow at Pike, who just shakes her head. “I suppose it’s a gift,” she says, a small smile on her face, “to be able to enjoy yourself after all these years here.”

“My darling Pike,” a voice says from the doorway, “I would enjoy myself in a trash heap if only you were there.”

For the first time since arriving, Vex finds herself tempted to grin. She turns to the doorway, to see a short man - not any taller than Pike, from what she can tell - with a handsome face and dark hair pulled back into a queue. When he sees her watching him, he bows extravagantly. “Scanlan Shorthalt, at your service. We rarely get such lovely guests here.”

“We don’t get any guests, Scanlan,” Pike says, in a fond tone that tells of long-practiced banter. “Take it down a few notches, okay?”

“Don’t ruin my fun, I don’t ever get to talk to anyone but you and Lord Grumpy.” The nickname does in fact surprise a laugh out of Vex, as Scanlan sits down next to her. “And while Pike is an angel incarnate, our esteemed employer is somewhat less so.”

It is easy to smile at Scanlan as he makes himself comfortable and gratefully accepts a cup of tea from Pike. Less easy is the debate that goes on inside her head - does she want to know more about the monster that is the lord of this castle or rather avoid the topic. Before she can decide, Scanlan continues. “But this is such a dour topic. I’d rather know the name of this fair creature that now graces our presence.” 

“Vex’ahlia,” she replies. Whatever else she could expect from her imprisonment in the castle, Scanlan’s and Pike’s presence settled her nerves.

“How is the mood upstairs?” Pike asks while Vex finishes her breakfast. 

Scanlan sips on his tea and gives her a small nod. “Broody, but not unreasonable. If you want anything from our Lord Grumpy, today would be a good time to ask.”

“Thank you, Scanlan. Be a dear and finish cleaning up while I show Vex’ahlia around, alright?”

“For you, my angel, anything.” He says with a wink. 

As Pike is leading her away and along another corridor to whatever destination she has in mind, Vex says, “He’s funny. And really cheerful.” 

“That’s true. But wait until he really starts asking you questions.” Pike laughs and opens another door for them to step through - into a gorgeous two-story tall library. Vex has never seen that many books in one place in her entire life and just stops and stares at the enormous shelves reaching up to the ceiling. The ceiling is painted with soft dawn-kissed clouds and tiny birds; it is maybe the most beautiful thing Vex has ever seen. She wants to see it better, so she heads for the thin staircase that leads to a banister on the second floor but Pike stops her with a soft hand placed on her arm. 

“This one leads to Lord Percival’s study. It’s best you stay down here.” She says apologetically. “I’ll be right back, hopefully with good news.” She moves past Vex and quickly climbs the steps herself. 

She’s a bit disappointed, but she certainly doesn’t want to confront the monster himself right now, so she contents herself with browsing the books on the main floor. Judging by the titles, nearly every topic imaginable must be represented here - in the short amount of time she looks, she finds books on gardening, on the history of the realm, on mathematics, as well as books of fiction for both adults and children. Honestly, she thinks, she could spend all her time reading, and perhaps not get through one full shelf of books in the six months she’ll be here. She might test that theory - what else does she have to fill her days with, after all?

Vex is contemplating a book about the history of the Emperors of Tal’dorei when Pike descends the stairs. “Good news!” she says cheerfully. “We’re free to ask the Ashari to bring whatever you need. Someone should come tomorrow, I believe, so if you want anything in particular, make a list.”

“I will.” Suddenly, she has a thought, and feels her fingers grip the book she holding more tightly. “Do you think,” she asks quietly, “he would let me send a letter to my brother, through the Ashari? Vax will be worrying.”

Pike blinks for a moment, but before she can say anything, that awful, dissonant voice booms from the top of the stairs. “No letters. The Ashari can tell him you live, nothing more.”

Vex looks up briefly, and regrets it - the dark, swirling shadows are even more disconcerting in the daylight. It’s more real, to see it now; this is not just a horror of the night, but a real, living thing, one she now has to live with for what seems to be the brief remainder of her life. When the piercing blue glow of its eyes meets hers, she looks down and away, turning slightly so it’s no longer in her peripheral vision.

“Yes, my lord,” Pike says softly. “We’ll pass along a verbal message to the Ashari.” She motions to Vex to follow her out of the room, and Vex gratefully complies. She doesn’t even notice that she’s still holding on tightly to the book she took from the shelf until they have walked a few minutes quietly side by side. 

Pike shows her a few more rooms on their tour - a cards room and a parlor with a beautiful piano forte, a couple of very nice sitting rooms and an impressively sized dining room - but the enthusiasm has left Vex after the encounter with the monster. They return to the kitchen for a late lunch; while Pike cooks, Vex sits down with a scrap of paper and writes a list of things she needs Keyleth to fetch for her. 

She’s almost done when a rush of defiance overcomes her and before she can think better of it she adds a quick line at the very bottom of the paper for her brother. _I love you. I miss you. Stay safe and keep out of trouble. Vex_. Carefully she folds the paper to hide her message and hands it over to Pike after they have eaten. 

If Pike sees her ill-conceived note, she doesn’t comment on it. “I’ll pass this on to Keyleth tomorrow. You should have your things in a few days then, with the next delivery.”

“Thank you, Pike.” Vex smiles and then excuses herself to return with book in hand to her room. She needs time to process, to not think for a little while. 

She curls up on the window seat and stares for a while outside, at the forest right in front of her eyes that separates her from the rest of the world - from her brother. In the daylight it looks almost normal, bright green in its early summer colors, but the dark shadows between the tree trunks make her shiver when she thinks about what lurks there. 

With a sigh Vex opens the book she took from the library and starts reading. It takes her away from this place, plunges her into the rich and fascinating lives of people she’s never met, who did great things and terrible things. She is so engrossed in the tale of J’mon Sa Ord that she only notices the time when there suddenly seems to be not enough light for her to read to - the sun has dipped behind the treeline. 

She’s barely closed the book when there’s a knock at her door. “Come in,” she calls, expecting Pike with something about dinner. She freezes in place when the monster comes floating into her room. 

It stops in the center of the room, several steps away from her seat. “It’s time,” it says in its strange double voice. “Stand up.”

“Time for what?” she asks in a shaky voice, even as she complies.

When it responds, the underlying voice has dropped out, and only the scratchy, inhuman voice remains. “Time to feed.”

Vex can’t bring herself to step forward; her muscles lock with terror, and her limbs refuse to obey her commands. So, after a moment, the creature floats to her. The smoke swirls around her, brushing across her arms without any accompanying sensation, until suddenly she can feel something slide across her wrist. It’s like nothing she has ever felt - at once soft and sharp, with a texture she couldn’t describe even if she tried. It moves closer still, until the room around her vanishes in a haze of black smoke. She doesn’t realize she’s holding her breath until she hears a voice - “Breathe,” it says, “Deep breaths will help.” It’s the underlying voice, she realizes, the one she’s come to think of as the human voice. Though, it’s not, is it? There’s nothing human about this thing. Still, she takes its advice, drawing in a shuddering breath. 

The smoke on her wrist hardens into a spike, and before she can make a sound, the spike slams through her chest. 

There is a brief, glorious moment of numbness, when the shock blots out any other sensation. And then the voice speaks again. “Keep breathing. It will hurt less if you keep breathing.”

Hurt? Gods above, _now_ it hurts. She opens her mouth to scream, but no sound emerges. Her entire torso is on fire, she’s trapped, impaled - her heart, she realizes. It put a spike through her heart. 

Panic, dread, pain, horror - everything floods her mind at once. She can’t move, sees nothing but swirling smoke, Pike has lied to her, she’s going to die-

“Breathe. You have to breathe.” The voice repeats. The sound comes slightly from above and Vex’s eyes follow it without her volition until they find two pale blue dots in the midst of the darkness. With nothing else to hold on to her mind latches on. It takes all her remaining willpower to draw a shaking breath, then another. Her body stops screaming for air, the pain lessening.

“Good. Keep breathing, it’s almost over.” Somewhere in the back of her head, behind the pain and the terror, Vex thinks that the voice sounds pained - and muffled. She takes another breath and keeps her eyes focused on the blue pinpricks of light. She won’t scream. She refuses to give it the satisfaction of hearing her scream. The pain seems to last forever, a feeling like a red hot poker jammed between her ribs, prodding and spreading searing fire wherever it goes. It’s burning away her heart, her lungs, everything she keeps in her chest, in her breath, in her voice. It is burning the very essence of who she is.

Throughout it all, the voice keeps talking, reminds her to breathe in a steady rhythm. 

Then, as suddenly as it had slammed into her, the spike retreats, taking the pain and every ounce of her strength with it. Vex feels her legs give way underneath her but the monster keeps her standing. “It’s over, it’s over,” It says, still only with the muffled-human voice, “It’s over.” She keeps staring into its eyes as she is gently lifted up and carried over to the bed. “I’m sorry.”

Everything seems very far away right now, Vex thinks. The throbbing in her chest, the feel of the blanket being pulled over her body, the way her skin now feels ice-cold. And especially the dark cloud that seems to hover around her. “I’m so sorry,” the voice says again, and somewhere in her mind, Vex thinks that this voice could almost be soothing, if it weren’t attached to a monster. “Rest now. It’s over for a while.”

Over? If it didn’t seem like such an effort, she might laugh. Or cry. This won’t be over until she’s home, or dead, and since the former is impossible … 

She doesn’t notice when the creature leaves. She simply curls up on her bed, shivering, and stares at the white wall until, much later, she sees nothing at all.


	4. Interlude - The Forest Speaks

Keyleth is not a religious person. But when Vex had come to her door asking for a horse and her view on the old magic, after she had left in a hurry, Keyleth had prayed. When the horse returned to her a few hours later, spooked but unharmed, she lit a candle and sat on the porch staring at the dark woods at the end of the road. And when Vax came stumbling out of the stretching shadows cast by the early morning sun with tears streaking down his cheeks, she had known. Vex belongs to the castle now. 

He sleeps most of the day curled up on a rug in front of the fireplace; exhaustion and grief written on his face. She, on the other hand, busies herself with the preparations for tomorrow’s delivery - adjustments need to be made. 

When he wakes, just before the sun goes down again, he barely acknowledges Keyleth before running out the door and back into the forest. She runs after him, into the field that borders the forest, but she needn’t have bothered - moments after he enters the trees, he runs back out again. When he sees Keyleth, he stops, blinking in confusion. “What …”

“It does that,” Keyleth says. “The forest. It’s very particular about who gets to enter.”

“But I need -” He turns back to the forest, but doesn’t move again. “Please. I need to get my sister. Please let me through.”

He enters again; it takes a bit longer, but he exits in the same spot again. It hurts Keyleth, to see him drop to his knees and begin weeping. She doesn’t think - she just goes to him and puts her arms around him. “Stay with me,” she says, “tomorrow I need to go to the castle. The forest lets me through. Perhaps you can come with me.”

“She may be dead by tomorrow.”

“She may be dead now,” Keyleth says, immediately regretting the words when he flinches. “We cannot control the forest. My family has been tending this land for generations. You will not get the magic to do what you want by sheer force.” 

Vax just stares at her for a long moment, before holding her tight and burying his face in her hair. She cannot feel his tears, but his body shakes with his sobs. She holds on, and grieves with him. Vex was - is - a friend, a treasured one. One of the only friends Keyleth has, to be honest. She doesn’t want to give up hope. But she knows that the castle rarely gives up its prisoners. And never without a price.

Vax spends the night in front of the fireplace again, staring blindly into the flames until sleep claims him and he sinks into himself on the rug. Keyleth drapes a blanket over his shoulders and sits for a long while next to him, stroking his hair,  not knowing what else to do with herself. With a soft sigh she goes to bed when the fire has burned down to cinders; and after some tossing and turning falls asleep too. 

She wakes with the morning sun and rouses Vax for a silent breakfast. They eat in haste and only a little; Vax’s restless energy is rubbing off on Keyleth. He helps her fill the small cart with the week’s supplies and they set off towards the forest. Before they slip past the treeline Keyleth takes his hand and hopes that this will be enough to let him pass into the forest. It does.

Vax lets out a deep breath he was holding, air escaping him all in a rush. “Thank you.”

“We haven’t made it to the castle, don’t thank me yet.”

They walk on in silence with their clasped hands hanging between them like a safety line. Vax is staring straight ahead as if willing the forest to move faster around them, let them pass through it quicker, and she shares his sentiment. Vex was surely still there, still alive, she must be. It wouldn’t take her that fast, she was stronger than that. She must be.

A deep growl stops them dead in their tracks. Vax’s grip on her hand tightens and he shifts in front of her as a huge bear lumbers out from between the trees. The bear sits in the middle of the path, blocking them from moving forward. Around them, Keyleth begins to notice rustling in the trees, and when she looks to the side, she sees flashes of eyes and fur in the forest’s unnatural darkness. She feels Vax reach to his side, where she knows a dagger is sheathed …

_ Ashari. We will speak.  _

Keyleth turns to the bear, eyes wide. She’s heard stories of Ashari magic allowing a person to speak with animals, but it’s an old spell, long lost, and she’s never learned. But somehow, the bear’s growling forms into understandable words. A glance at Vax tells her that he is not hearing the same thing she is. “Speak, Elder,” she says, opting for maximum deference. Vax shoots her a look, but she shakes her head slightly.

_ The boy cannot pass. _

“He worries for his sister, Elder. He wishes to check on her.”

_ The sister is where she needs to be. She is alive. She will remain so for a time. _

Keyleth blinks. “Where she needs to be? What do you mean?” When Vax opens his mouth, she shushes him with an elbow to his ribs.

_ She is hope. We have not had hope in a very long time. Tell the brother that she will be watched. But he cannot interfere. She made the choice, and we wait to see what comes of it. _

Quietly, Keyleth relays this message to Vax. “I can’t do that. I can’t,” he says, turning to the bear. “She’s there because of me. Because of my mistake. I can’t let that monster hurt her because of me.”

_ She already hurts. But she lives. And she will continue to live until the beast is through with her. But she has a chance. We have waited so long for this chance.  _ The bear steps forward. They remain utterly still, until the bear stands right in front of Vax.  _ Do not compound your errors. Trust your sister.  _

Keyleth can barely look at Vax, the naked anguish on his face. “She’s all I have. What am I to do? I cannot abandon her.”

_ You live. You wait. You trust. This is not abandonment.  _ The bear looks at Keyleth.  _ You may pass, Ashari. The boy may not. _

Reluctantly, Keyleth steps away from Vax. “I’m sorry,” she says, touching his shoulder.

“You’ll leave me behind? Knowing where Vex’ahlia is?”

_ Ashari, tell the boy that if he attempts to enter the forest again, I will let my fellows have him, and he will be presented to his sister in pieces. _

Having said it’s piece the bear disappears again between the trees, but Keyleth still feels the eyes of other creatures resting on them. She swallows and looks pleadingly at Vax. “They will kill you if you don’t turn back. Trust me, Vax. I’ll- I’ll come up with something. Please.”

She can see how much it costs him to nod at her, then take a step backwards, then another. She nods back with a wobbling smile and continues on by herself, turning around every couple of steps to look for him. But blessedly he doesn’t try to follow her, just stands there where she left him and waits.

  
Soon he is lost to the shadows in the forest and instead the trees part for her to lead her in front of the castle gates where Pike is already waiting. When they finally stand in front of each other Pike gives her a weak smile and holds a folded piece of paper out to her. “We’ll need something extra for next week. Just, open it after you have returned, okay? Oh, and please tell the boy that his sister lives.” She seems to want to say more, but after a quick look back at the castle presses her lips tightly together and collects the baskets with produce from Keyleth’s cart. A quick nod and then Pike is making her way back to the door in a hurry, leaving Keyleth with a sense of worry that something has happened behind the cursed walls.


	5. Judging a Book By Its Cover

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Everyone reading this story should go see [the AMAZING picture](http://drunken-pilot.tumblr.com/post/152653002693/just-me-loving-to-bits-this-fanfic-au-im) that drunken-pilot drew of the feeding scene at the end of the last (full) chapter, and then tell them how phenomenal they are, because we're still in awe of it.

Vex comes to consciousness only briefly the first time. She drifts awake from her fever dream, shivering and weak and disoriented. Her memory only retains fragments; mid-day light falling through the windows, the soft fabric of her nightshift sticking clammy and cold to her skin, a warm hand on her brow. Pike’s voice. “Vex. Can you hear me?” She drifts away again before an answer forms in her mind.

The second time, she remembers waking to a soft voice floating towards her from the shadows the moon casts into her room. Gentle words that make no sense to her feverish mind, but the voice is calm and soothing and Vex sees not where it comes from, and she sleeps.

She wakes for the third time - at least the third time she has any recollection of - to a cup with warm broth held against her lips. The fragrance of chicken soup and fresh herbs prompts her to blearily open her eyes and make an attempt to hold the cup herself as she slowly drinks from it. Warmth seeps down her throat, but is lost to the cold void that has taken up residence in her chest cavity. She shivers and Pike takes the empty cup away and readjusts the blanket around her shoulders. 

“Hold on, Vex. It’s going to be okay.” Vex can hear the worry in Pike’s voice as the fever pulls her under again.

She dreams of strange things, of shadows and light, of her very heart being taken from her body and replaced with a thing dripping with black tar. But then she dreams of her brother, and of trees that move without wind, and animals more than three times their normal size. But each time she fears the nightmares will consume her, that same soft voice comes to her, bringing her enough out of sleep to push the horrors aside. Eventually, she realizes that the voice is reading to her, in a soothing cadence that helps her even out her breathing and cling to consciousness for a short time. 

At one point, she hears the voice chuckle. “This book is terrible. So inaccurate.”

“Choose another one then,” she finds herself murmuring. 

There’s a moment of silence. “You’re awake?”

“No,” she sighs. “Not sleeping either.”

“Somewhere in between, then? I know that state.” Vex turns her head in the direction she thinks the voice is coming from, but the room is dark, and she sees no movement. “How do you feel?”

“Odd,” she says, feeling her eyelids grow heavy again. “Will you read again?”

“If you want me to.” 

“Please.”

The reading begins again, and Vex curls into her blankets and drifts off to the voice’s pleasant tone.

The following day she manages to be conscious long enough to drink another cup with hot broth that Pike brings her and a cup of tea some time later. Her body seems to retain the heat, Vex feels it slide down her throat and swirl in her stomach. The emptiness that was her chest fills slowly with life again.“The fever is breaking,” Pike tells her, relief clearly written across her face. “Rest, we’ll get you through this.” 

“Thank you.” Vex whispers before closing her eyes again, just for a short moment. When she opens them the day has passed and shadows rule her bedroom. Somewhere amongst them the voice has taken up residence, its reading dragging her for a while into wakefulness.

She listens as the voice tells her gently the story of the Raven Queen, a mortal woman who transcended to godhood, presiding now over the border between life and death. Vex wonders if she will be kind to her, when her time comes. If she will let her slip gently into the long night. The book doesn’t say.

“She sounds nice though,” she murmurs, already drifting back into sleep.

“She is mercy,” the voice replies, before continuing with the book. Vex dreams of raven feathers and smooth, white hands reaching out to her. But the voice that comforts her is male; it draws her in and wraps her dream-self in warmth.

The next morning, Vex feels more exhausted than she’s ever felt in her life. But Pike beams at her when she comes in. “It’s over,” she says, “the fever is gone.”

“How many days?”

“Four.” When Vex starts to frown at her very sweaty night shift, Pike gestures at the wardrobe at the other end of the room. “Keyleth brought some of your clothing while you were out. I’ll grab you something to wear.”

It feels like a lot of effort to change her clothes, but with Pike’s help, Vex manages, and feels slightly more human for it. “Is it always like this?” she asks softly.

Pike exhales slowly. “Yes,” she admits. “The fever is common. We never know how long it will last, but it’s never been more than a week.” 

Vex cannot stop herself from asking. “What _happened_ , Pike? It came to me - and it stabbed - I should be dead, shouldn’t I?”

Pike’s arms come around Vex, squeezing her gently. “The demon’s magic is strange, it makes you experience things that don’t really happen. It does things that are so unfathomable that your mind finds ways to explain them.” She draws back, her expression sad. “It does terrible things, but it keeps you alive, because … because it will need more.”

The fever has done her one great service - her memory of the feeding is fuzzy, and feels more like a nightmare than anything. Still, her stomach threatens to bring back the broth she’s just eaten, at the mere thought of the experience. She resolves to put it out of her mind, at least until she’s stronger. The horror is something she can deal with later. 

For now, she allows Pike to help her into the chair sitting next to her bed. Its position reminds her of the voice. “Pike,” she asks, “did someone read to me at night? Or was that a fever dream?”

Pike is silent for a long moment. “That was Lord Percival,” she says finally. “He watched you while we slept.”

Vex blinks at her in confusion. “Why? Why did it do that after…” She waves her hand weakly, encompassing her current state and what had transpired four days ago. And then, remembering, she adds quietly, “Its voice sounded so different. Why does it do that, Pike? Use all those different voices?”

Pike silently hands her a cup of tea from the tray she brought in and busies herself with changing bedsheets and fluffing up pillows as she slowly explains. “It’s a long story, but I think you already know parts of it. I know the townsfolk tell it, how the master of the castle made a bargain with a demon for its power and in return was transformed into a monster.”

“Yes, I know that part. And it _is_ true. There’s nothing human left in that thing.”

Pike sighs and shakes her head. “That’s not the whole truth, and I think you know it too. You noticed the different voices, after all.” She refills Vex’s cup and continues. “One voice is the demon, Its name is Orthax. The other is Lord Percival. Sometimes they speak as one, but other times, one or the other has full control.” 

Vex sighs and takes a long sip of the fragrant tea, relishing the way it warms her chilled body. “Something changed though, after the feeding.” A cold shiver runs down her spine and she has to swallow the gagging reflex that thought brings along with it. “I’ve not heard the … other voice. Orthax.”

“The feeding sends the beast to sleep, at least for a time. Orthax goes dormant, returning Lord Percival to us. That’s what you heard, Vex. For a few weeks he is entirely himself.” Pike beams at her, grateful and happy, for just a moment. 

This thought haunts Vex over the next couple of days, as she recovers from her fever. She does not see the monster - Lord Percival - nor does she hear him by her bedside at night. (She tells herself she is not disappointed, when she wakes up late that night to silence.) How is it, she wonders, that a creature so foul could be the same person who comforted her? How can she reconcile her terror - the indescribable pain, the horror that is literally stealing her soul - with the master both Pike and Scanlan seem to have such genuine affection for? 

When she feels well enough to wander the house again, she spends the first few days sticking close to Pike and Scanlan, in the kitchen and the common rooms. Their presence is soothing, and allows her to get a solid grip on her own sanity, after all that has happened. But eventually, she makes her way back to the library. She gathers a small stack of books from the shelves, and spends the day reading in a corner chair. From this vantage, she can see out of a window; occasionally birds fly past, reminding her that the world goes on without her. 

The next day, Vex returns to the library, a cup of tea in hand. Her stack of books is still there, but there is an unfamiliar book sitting on top. It is a tome about the Raven Queen, with a bookmark inserted towards the front. When she opens it, some of the early words sound familiar - this, she realizes, is the book he - it - was reading to her during her fever. Her hands shake a bit as she looks up at the staircase. She sees no movement above. 

For a moment she contemplates returning to her room but then banishes the thought out of her head. It is not here - and nowhere is safe if the beast wishes to do her harm. So she sits back down in her chair, her back turned to the staircase and continues the story of the Raven Queen where the bookmark lays. By the time the light starts to fade she has finished the book and the monster has not come to disturb her.

The same scene repeats itself the following day. When Vex finds her way back into the library, this time with a tray in hand - Pike insists she needed to drink more and gives her a small pot of tea along with a plate of cut fruit and a freshly baked roll - there is a new book sitting on top of her pile. This one is a slim compendium of plants and flowers native to the region. A surprising choice of recommendation but Vex settles into her chair and opens it nonetheless. It is well written and she finds herself leafing through it several times before choosing a new book from her pile after a quick lunch.

The sound of a dropped book startles her out of her reading in the afternoon and she freezes, not daring to move or turn her head. Vex has to force herself to draw in a gulp of air. 

“Forgive me, I had not meant to startle you.” The voice she has come to recognize as Lord Percival’s sounds across the room, followed by the echoing sound of a closing door. When Vex manages to turn around and look, the ledge leading to its study is empty. 

Her days continue like this. She asks Pike several times if she can help take care of the house, but Pike refuses all offers. So all she can think of to do is read in the library. Books continue to appear next to her chair, and whatever the creature’s true nature, she cannot fault its taste in reading material. She learns a wide variety of things from its recommendations; the scientific nature of the stars, the history of ale-making in Tal’dorei, the story of an artist who painted most of the royal family portraits in the previous century. But the first day a novel appears on her pile, she reads the cover copy, and finds herself looking up at the staircase. “Is this a romance?” she asks aloud, before she can stop herself.

There is a long moment of silence. Then, the voice drifts down. “Do you have a problem with romantic storylines?”

“No, not really. I just didn’t expect …”

“No, you wouldn’t, would you?” A pause. “It is a good story. But if it’s not to your liking …”

“No, no,” she protests, sitting in her chair. “It looks interesting.” She takes a deep breath, and glances upstairs again. She can see no movement - it is clearly staying out of her sight, for which she is grateful. “Thank you,” she says softly.

She does not hear from it again that day. 

(The book is excellent, and she makes a point of seeking out others by the same author on the shelves downstairs.)

There is no new book waiting on her pile the following day, but the ones she had picked out yesterday have been rearranged and a small note is sticking out from the top-most. It reads: _Read this one first, the remaining ones in the proposed order_.

She glances upwards to the ledge but can’t make out if it - he? - is there or not. “Thank you.” She shouts in the empty room and feels a little foolish. But when she settles down with the book in hand and opens it to begin reading she hears a quiet reply from above. 

“Let me know what you think of it.” 

“I will.” It feels a little strange but strangely not wrong to have this conversation. Vex enjoys the new book almost more than the first one from that author and soon finds herself reading aloud when she comes across a passage that she especially likes. 

“Could you repeat that last part again?” she hears him ask a little timidly after she quotes one passage she found particularly funny. 

“It’s hard to keep shouting across the room,” she says, then adds, “If you want me to repeat it you should come down here.”

There is no response, for long enough that Vex is sure he’s gone away. But as soon as she looks back down at the book, she sees a black shadow out of the corner of her eye. Her heart lodges in her throat, and she looks away, unable to gaze at the monster’s form. But as she stares resolutely out the window, the shadow moves behind and settles somewhere out of sight. “Is this acceptable?” the voice asks.

“Yes,” she says. She has to clear her throat in order to continue reading aloud. But she does continue; she finds herself reading everything aloud now, much like he - it? - had done for her when she was ill. 

When she finishes the scene she’d been reading, she stops and looks out the window again. “I wonder,” she says, “if he realizes how much she’s suffering here, underneath the jokes.”

“Not yet,” the voice says, “but he will. It takes a while to get past her facade.”

“But it’s not a very deep facade. It’s clear how much the lack of friends or family hurts her.”

“Clear to you and I, but only because we have access to her thoughts. People are marvelously good at denying what’s right in front of them when it doesn’t suit their current purposes.”

“Well, that’s true.” Vex sighs. “And I suppose it makes for a good story. Now I need to read on, just to see how he figures it out.”

“It’s worth the wait.” 

Vex reads until her voice starts to falter. When she looks up from the book, she notices the sun has begun to sink below the trees outside. Tentatively, she glances to the side, trying to catch a glimpse of movement. “I think …”

“Yes. I hear footsteps in the hall. I believe your dinner is ready.”

She looks back down at the book, and tries not to notice the dark figure flowing back up the stairs.

“Will you read again?” The question floats down to her just as she is about to leave.

“If you want me to.” 

“Please.” 

Vex is surprised by the smile creeping onto her face as she exits the library and runs into Pike who came to fetch her for dinner.

She reads aloud from the book the next day, and the day after. Where the shadow finds its perch while she reads Vex doesn’t see. But the voice is close enough while they discuss passages and ... it’s not frightening, not really. By the second day, she realizes that she actually enjoys their conversation. 

That evening, when she sits in the kitchen with Pike and Scanlan for dinner, she wonders out loud. “The smoke body, is that Orthax?”

Scanlan exchanges a look with Pike, who shrugs, and allows Scanlan to answer her. “Not quite, the smoke form is made by Orthax, not of it.” For a moment Vex thinks he’s going to add something or ask her a question, but he only gives her a brilliant smile and returns to his food.

When Vex lies in bed later she thinks about his answer. If the smoke is not the demon, then what is it? What is inside the terrible smoke form? Would it make a difference, even if she knew? It might, but she’d need to look at the creature to find out - and right now, she is unsure if she can.

The next day brings rain, and a dreary light covers her corner of the library. Vex finds her mind wandering; she curls up in her chair and stares outside, the book open and unread in her lap. She does not notice when the shadow comes downstairs, but after a while, she hears the voice speak, almost tentatively. “If you do not wish to read today, I will leave you alone.”

“No, that’s okay,” Vex says. She takes a deep breath, then closes the book. “Tell me, how many of the books in this library have you read?”

“All of them. Many more than once.”

“I’ve noticed that a few of them are newer than … than …” She falters. It’s hard to say newer than a century old without feeling the horror of her situation again.

“The Ashari bring new books on occasion. I am grateful to them.” 

“You know, I wondered …” She watches a raindrop trace a path down the window. “When I worked in the shop, occasionally the Ashari would get a shipment of books that they wouldn’t let me unpack and shelve. I always wondered why.”

“You worked with the Ashari?”

“Yes. They were kind enough to give me a job when my brother and I found ourselves in Whitestone. No one else was quite willing to take a chance on a pair of dirty, mannerless siblings, barely out of childhood.” Vex smiles to herself. “We cleaned up and grew older, but some would argue we never did acquire any manners.”

“Your manners seem perfectly acceptable.”

Vex isn’t sure what to say to that, other than, “Thank you.” She is not sure why she allowed herself to mention her brother, or her life before. She feels her heart constrict, and takes a few deep breaths to steady herself. Eventually, she opens the book again. “Shall we continue our story?”

“Please.”

Vex opens the book on her lap again to the page they left off last time and begins to read. It’s not much left, only a few pages until the story ends. Until she finds out if it’s worth it, as he had said. 

It is. 

Neither speaks for a moment after she read the last words and closed the book. Vex stares out of the window where the rain is still falling like a grey curtain. It lends the atmosphere a much too somber mood, despite the happy ending of the novel. 

“Do you think a love like that is possible?” she muses out loud, not really thinking.

“I wouldn’t know.” The voice behind her sounds melancholy. “But I’d like to believe that it is.”

“Sorry. I hadn’t meant to…” Vex automatically turns around in her chair, an ingrained reflex to look at the one she is apologizing to. She falls silent as her eyes find the vaguely human form of smoke and shadows sitting in another chair not far from her. The form is still disturbing, the constantly moving swirls and tendrils that make out this body. But where used to be only pinpricks of light, now two pale blue disks meet her stare. And where once had been the urge to vomit at the mere thought of this form, a light curiosity has taken root. “I’m sorry.” she says finally, now unable to pull her gaze away.

“It’s not your fault.” The reply wavers, his voice sounding bewildered.

“Another book then?” she asks, changing the topic and dragging her eyes back to the sizable stack next to her. 

“Yes. If you like, that is. Please.” The little stutter sounds endearing to her as she takes the next novel from the stack and opens its cover to start reading again.


	6. Hope When You Least Expect It

If Pike is honest with herself, she really hadn’t expected this - at least not this quickly. She’d hoped that Vex would come to understand Lord Percival’s nature, but the feeding is a traumatic experience, and she wouldn’t have blamed Vex for avoiding him entirely for a while. But here they are, both sitting in the library, discussing books politely. It doesn’t feel like friendship, not yet; maybe it won’t ever be, under the circumstances. But it’s something. The peace makes Pike breathe easier, anyway.

She’s even more surprised when Vex makes a request during dinner. “Pike, could you ask Keyleth to bring another shipment of books?”

“Of course. What do you want?”

“Oh, they’re not for me.” Vex looks down at her plate, not meeting either Pike or Scanlan’s questioning glances. “I’ll never read all the books in the library, not while I’m here. But he … Lord Percival, that is, I think he could use some new reading material.”

Pike and Scanlan look at each other. Scanlan’s eyebrows creep up into his forehead, but Pike lays a finger over her lips before he can say anything. “I bet he could,” she replies. “Keyleth’s due to come tomorrow, I’ll ask her.”

“Thank you, Pike.” Vex glances only quickly up from her plate to smile at her before looking back down again. “Will you let me know when it arrives? I want it to be a surprise.” 

Pike feels Scanlan tugging at her sleeve to get her attention but she only pats his hand and then makes a shooing motion. Not yet. “That should be no problem.” She smiles at Vex but the girl doesn’t look up again and soon excuses herself from the dinner table.

“What just happened? Did you put something in my tea again?” Scanlan shakes his head in wonder. “And here I thought she and Lord Grumpy didn’t get along.”

“Hush, not a word to either of them. They’re just getting there, and I don’t want you to spook her.” 

To his credit, Scanlan nods and then wanders off with a silent, pensive look on his face. Leaving Pike with the dishes, of course. Not that she minds today; Vex’s request has lifted her mood considerably and she hums quietly as she works. 

With just a little bit of luck and work she can see them becoming friends. And after such a long time, if only for a short period, Pike would be glad to see her Lord have a friend again.

The following day she waits patiently by the castle gates with a short list of things she needs and Vex’s special request scribbled down on a piece of paper. Her eyes are trained on the darkness between the trees, expecting Keyleth and her cart to emerge from them any minute now.

When Keyleth arrives, she takes a small sack from the seat next to her. “I don’t know if this is allowed,” she says, “but Vax wants his sister to have this.”

“What is it?”

“Just a few mementos from home. To remind her that she’s still loved, and remembered.”

Pike looks inside the sack - everything here is harmless, so she nods. “She’ll be grateful to know that her brother is alright.”

Keyleth hesitates, then lowers her voice and steps closer to Pike. “He tried to come with me, the last time. But something very strange happened.” When Pike raises her eyebrows, Keyleth continues. “There’s a giant bear in the forest, have you seen it?”

“Yes, I think I know the one you mean. I’ve seen it standing at the edge of the forest, here by the gate. It never comes any closer.”

“It … it spoke to me.” Keyleth wrings her hands together. “It told me that Vax wasn’t allowed to pass. That Vex had to remain here. It said … it said she was their only hope.”

Pike’s heartbeat speeds up at the word “hope.” She grasps Keyleth’s hands in hers. “What did it mean?”

“I don’t know! It didn’t tell me anything else. It only said that they - the animals, I suppose - have waited a long time for hope, and that Vex was their chance. I’ve asked around my tribe, and no one has any idea. The animals have never spoken to anyone else! I don’t know what it means!”

“The animals are part of the curse on this place,” Pike says, willing herself to breathe evenly. “They appeared at the same time as we were trapped here. I’ve not seen them, other than the bear from a distance, but other Ashari have told me of them over the years. I think they’re trapped, just as much as we are. So if they have hope …” She looks up, meets Keyleth’s eyes. “I’ll keep her safe. Tell her brother that.”

Keyleth smiles down at her and squeezes her hands before letting go. “I will. And- and if I get another chance I’ll try to speak with the bear again. Maybe it will let me ask another question.”

“Thank you. Have a safe trip home, and I will see you soon.” Pike collects her delivery and the small sack intended for Vex, nods at Keyleth and slowly makes her way back inside the castle. 

If only she knew more details about what the bear had said to Keyleth. What is it about Vex that gives them hope? Whatever it is, the idea has now put a seed of hope into her own heart. Maybe it’s yet possible for the curse to be broken. Maybe there’s a way for them all to be free again. Yet whatever is needed, whatever Vex can do, she does not know. And they only have a finite amount of time to find out before it’s too late. 

As Pike hustles the food into the kitchen, she resolves to do whatever it takes to give Vex more time; with a little time, perhaps she can figure out the details of the curse they all suffer under. If there is still hope for all of them, she will not throw it away.


	7. Transformation

Sooner than Vex expects, Pike pulls her aside and lets her know that Keyleth had brought her a small crate with new books. It really isn’t much of a gift, Vex thinks, when Pike hands her a wooden crate that holds maybe six or eight books. 

“She also said to give you this. Your brother wants you to have it.” She adds, and puts a small burlap satchel on top of the crate.

“Thank you for all this,” Vex says without meeting the small woman’s eyes, her gaze fixed instead onto the small bag and the books in her hands.

“It was no trouble,” Pike replies with a smile in her voice, and thankfully leaves it at that. 

With her hands full and her chest close to bursting Vex retreats to her room to see what Vax had sent to her. Her hands are shaking when she sits on her bed and opens the satchel, reaches carefully inside. Her fingers brush against a familiar wooden figurine and a smile appears on her face when she pulls out the small carved bear, the first thing Vax made and was proud of. Her favorite trinket. Gently she puts it down on the nightstand and checks the bag again. Next is a folded piece of paper, and opening it she finds two shimmering blue feathers and her brother’s familiar handwriting snaking over the paper.  _ I love you, Stubby. I’m staying with Keyleth as you asked me to, I’m fine so please don’t worry. Stay alive, will you? We’ll find a way. I love you. _

Vex quickly puts the note and the feathers next to the bear before the tears that are dripping down her face can mar the words he left for her. As if determined to make her cry more, at the very bottom of the bag she finds her mother’s hairpin. It’s not a valuable piece in price, but to Vex the magically preserved heather blossom is irreplaceable.  _ Heather is for protection _ , her mother had said and smiled as she tucked it into her curls. Now Vex puts it down with Vax’s other gifts and rubs her eyes dry. It has not protected her mother, and it would not protect her, she thinks bitterly. 

Then she looks back to the books on her bed, waiting to be delivered. She might not be safe here, but neither is she utterly helpless. At the very least she can distract herself, and do something nice for the other occupants of the castle.

Vex carries the crate to the library but hesitates before she enters. Suddenly, it doesn’t seem like such a good idea anymore. Maybe he would be mad that she ordered something from outside without asking for permission first. Maybe he doesn’t like surprises. Maybe she is a coward. 

Carefully she nudges open the door and peeks inside. There is no shadow waiting for her in the reading corner by the window, and craning her neck, she can’t see him either on the balcony leading to his study. It’s late in the day - he’s probably off doing whatever it is he does for the rest of his days. Feeling foolish and bashful at the same time, she slips into the room and carries the crate to the small table she usually leaves her reading material on and sets it down for him to find. Then, before he can find her and make Vex explain herself, she quickly leaves again.

The next morning, to her surprise, he is already downstairs when she enters the library, pacing - or floating, anyway - by her usual chair. “Good morning,” she says quietly.

The smoke form stops, and those uncanny blue eyes stare at her. “The books. Pike says they were your idea.”

“Yes, well …” She looks down and away. “You said you hadn’t read anything new in a while. That seemed rather boring, so I thought … I’m sorry if I overstepped, or …”

“No!” The strength of the interruption surprises Vex, and she looks back up. “It’s … I mean … I don’t know why … thank you,” he finishes. She’s never heard him so uncertain before. Almost … shy? Certainly he couldn’t be - but yet, he has no interactions other than Pike, and Scanlan, and now her, does he? She might be the first new person he’s had a real conversation with in a century. It seems obvious, but the thought still floors her. 

“You’re welcome,” she says. They stare at each other for a long moment, until he finally moves aside and clears a path to her chair. When she sits, she looks at the book on the table. “This is one of the new books.”

“Yes.”

“But … I rather thought … I don’t know, maybe you’d want to read them yourself first.”

“I like the way you read. If you don’t mind.”

Vex looks out the window for a moment. It’s a lovely day; she can see the mountain cliff from this window, as well as the wind ruffling the leaves at the edge of the forest. The view has been her connection to the outside world for nearly a month, a reminder that things live outside of this castle. That somewhere, a bit to the south, there’s a bustling town, and her brother is there somewhere, hopefully living his life without the need to steal or beg. Even if she won’t feel the wind on her face again, Vax will, and does. 

It’s more than the other residents of this castle have.

With a small smile, Vex stands up and turns her chair around to face the library. He is sitting in his usual spot, a polite distance away. When he looks at her, she swears she can see surprise in those odd eyes. “What are you doing?”

“Reading,” she says simply. And then, with his smoke form visible in front of her, she opens the book he’s chosen and begins to read.

It’s more than a little different this time, reading a book neither of them knows what to expect from and Vex catches herself sneaking glances across the spine of the book to judge his reaction. Which is rather hard without a facial expression to go by. But he is leaning forward in his seat, angling slightly towards her words with curiosity or anticipation and that is enough for her. 

She gets several chapters into a novel that turns out to be a quite well-written adventure about a pair of seafaring scoundrels before it’s time for lunch. When she places a bookmark between the pages and closes the book there is a soft, displeased huff across from her. It takes her a second to realize that it was he who made this small impatient sound, so utterly human, and she can’t quite stifle a laugh. 

“What is so funny?” He sounds confused.

“Nothing, I’m sorry.” Vex tries to tamper down the grin on her face, and doesn’t quite succeed. To try and cover it she quickly gets up and turns to put the book down. 

“Are you laughing at me?,” he asks, confusion turning to incredulousness. 

“No, no, I would never.” She tries to reassure him, but the smile is in her voice too. So she opts for a hasty retreat towards the door. “I’m sure Pike has lunch already on the table, I’ll be back later to continue where we left off.” 

For a short moment she turns to look back. The smoke form has not moved, but his eyes are on her, full of the same emotion she had seen there before - surprise. Vex manages a quick nod, the smile still stuck to her lips, and slips out of the library.  

He is in his chair when she comes back that afternoon; perhaps he never left, she doesn’t know. And the more she looks at him, the easier it becomes. She can see the vague shape of a human in the smoke, inky black legs and arms, an indistinct torso, a head that never quite coalesces into a round shape. She still sees the spear that impaled her in her nightmares, but it’s become easier to set aside in the daylight. Or, at least, it’s easier to forget that this figure is the same one who drove the spear through her heart. “Shall we continue?” she asks, sitting down in her chair again.

His eyes look almost pleased when she meets his gaze. “Please,” is all he says.

And so it continues for a few more days, until they finish the book. When it comes time to begin another one, though, Vex surprises herself by requesting a change. “Will you read this one?” she asks, a little hesitantly. “My throat is a little scratchy, from talking so much and … well, I’d like to hear a story or two myself, if you don’t mind.” She crosses over to stand in front of him, holding the book out in front of her.

He stares at her so long that she’s afraid she’s crossed some line. But then, he reaches out; a sort of hand forms out of smoke tendrils, and gently takes the book from her. It almost seems to float between her hands and his lap. “Very well.” It might be her imagination, but his voice sounds a bit shaky for the first few sentences, before he settles into a rhythm. And he does have a nice voice, she thinks - well suited to the tales of folk heroes he’s reading. She draws her feet up to curl underneath her, and leans on the arm of the chair. 

When Pike brings afternoon tea, she looks from her master to Vex, and gives the latter a smile that shows more than a little relief. Vex returns a small smile, wrapping her hands around a warm cup of tea. For all that this … arrangement is odd and terrifying, in this moment, she finds she’s content. 

Pike doesn’t leave immediately. Instead she patiently waits for him to stop reading, then hands him a sheet of paper, filled with her neat handwriting. Pike’s hand meets the smoke in solid form, instead of passing through like Vex would have expected. “The new grocery list for the coming month. Is there anything you want me to add to it?” Pike asks.

“No, I believe that should be it. Thank you, Pike.” He hands the paper back to her.

She smiles and nods, leaving the library and them to continue with the story. 

They’ve almost finished the book on folk heroes when, one morning, Vex comes and finds the library empty. She sits and picks up another book to skim for a while, but an hour passes, and her host is nowhere to be found. She looks up the stairs, but there’s no movement up there, either. Eventually, she goes looking for Pike or Scanlan, finding the latter in the kitchen, cleaning up from breakfast. “I haven’t seen … Lord Percival today. It’s odd.”

Scanlan blinks for a moment, before his face turns unexpectedly sad. “I’d wondered,” he says. “It’s been longer than usual this time.”

“Longer than usual for what?”

“For Orthax to return.” 

Vex freezes in place. Scanlan lets her stand there for a moment, before taking her hand and gently leading her out of the kitchen. “Come on, I’ll build you a fire in the study, there are books there you can read if you want.”

She follows him silently. The last week had served to build a slowly growing familiarity with her host and started to push her terror into the background. But Scanlan’s words brought it all back with as much hurtful clarity as her mind could recall after the draining fever episode. 

He seems to sense that she is not in the mood for conversation and after building that fire in the study, Scanlan leaves her alone with her thoughts. There was nothing he could say, really, that would make a difference. They both know full well that there is nothing they can do to change the outcome of the coming days. Vex sinks down on the rug in front of the fireplace, hugging herself and searching for warmth against the sudden chill that crept unbidden into her bones. She stays like that for a while, her gaze tracing the pattern of the rug beneath her, as she tries not to cry. 

She doesn’t know how much time has passed when Pike comes to fetch her. “It’s lunchtime,” Pike says gently, putting a hand on Vex’s shoulder. “Come, you should eat something.”

“It’s about to happen again, isn’t it?”

“Yes,” Pike says, not unkindly. “But thinking about it isn’t going to make it any better. Come, eat, and then maybe you can help me take the curtains down in your room, so I can dust the windows properly.”

Vex doesn’t move. “It’s going to be worse this time. Because I know what’s going to happen, and because …” She swipes at the unwanted moisture forming in her eyes. “Because I let myself … I should have thought about it, before we started to talk. Somehow knowing him, even a little, makes it worse.”

“Oh, sweetheart.” Pike takes a seat on the rug beside her, crossing her legs and placing a hand on Vex’s knee. “I don’t know exactly how you feel, because it’s never happened to me - Orthax can’t feed on us, we think because of the spell, but it can hurt us. It has, on occasion. If Lord Percival fights it, if he tries to deny the demon, it will eventually spiral out of control and attack anything in its path. And it’s terrifying.” Pike sighs. “I’m not proud, because often, after Orthax feeds, one of my thought is ‘thank the gods, Scanlan and I have at least another month to live.’ Countless people have died. We should be long dead, of old age if nothing else. Yet here I am, relieved that someone else died and I’m still here. How awful is that?”

“It’s human,” Vex says.

“It is. That doesn’t make it less awful, and it doesn’t make my fright any less real. Orthax is a demon, and he’s stolen so much from us. All of us. Most of all, Lord Percival. And you.” Pike gives her a small smile, patting her knee. “I won’t tell you to be strong right now, because that would be unfair. But I will tell you to come eat, and keep occupied, and maybe the strength will come. That’s how I’ve gotten through the last century, anyway.”

Vex lets out a deep sigh. “You’re probably right.”

“I know, it doesn’t make it less hard. Still, come.”

Vex lets Pike pull her to her feet and together they make their way into the kitchen for lunch. The mood at the table stays muted, even Scanlan remains uncharacteristically quiet. Afterwards they do exactly as Pike proposed - they try to keep busy. Pike even lets Vex help her with her other chores of cleaning and cooking until Vex is almost too exhausted to stand. It helps; otherwise, Vex isn’t sure she would be able to sleep.

The next day goes much the same way with Vex throwing herself into exhausting physical tasks in between meals so that she doesn’t have to lay awake in bed and think about what she has to expect in the coming days. Not that she doesn’t spend time thinking about it; not knowing when it’s going to happen almost makes it worse, but Pike’s gentle company and the knowledge that - at least for now -  she will survive this, makes it bearable. Her contemplations also give her another sad notion. If Pike feels trapped and scared and guilty, what thoughts must be running through  _ his _ head?

A whole week Vex spends like this, working herself to exhaustion so that she can sleep, and the demon doesn’t come for her. Pike and Scanlan begin to look at each other when they think Vex isn’t looking; they’re concerned, she can tell. But there’s nothing they can do, nothing any of them can do but wait. “Why hasn’t it happened yet?” Vex asks at dinner. 

“I don’t know,” Scanlan says. “Maybe we misjudged the cycle. Maybe he’s just up there doing his tinkering and brooding.” But the doubtful expression on Pike’s face tells Vex that Scanlan is grasping at straws.

That night, she is woken by Pike’s frantic voice. “Vex, Vex, wake up! You have to come!”

She sits up, blinking blearily. “Pike, what -”

“We have to hide. Come with me.” Pike stands next to her bed, dressed in her nightgown, a small oil lamp in hand. In the low lamplight, her eyes glow with fear. “Come on!”

Vex moves as commanded. “What’s wrong? What’s happening?”

Pike shushes her. When they exit the bedroom, Vex hears crashing from somewhere else in the house. “Pike?” she whispers, grabbing the smaller woman’s shoulder.

“Shhhh. Just follow me!” 

Pike leads her quickly down the hall, towards the main staircase. When they approach the open space around the stairs, Pike suddenly tugs Vex back and plasters herself against the wall. As Vex does the same, Pike puts a hand around the lamplight to dull the glow. When she stops moving, Vex suddenly hears a door slam - the sound is closer than the crashing had been. Pike freezes, and Vex feels her breath slow to almost nothing alongside her. They stay like that for what feels like an hour, but in reality is probably only minutes. Finally, as silence reigns, Pike grabs Vex’s hand again and pulls her to the staircase. 

On the main floor, they take a circuitous route - Pike leads her through the old receiving room, back through a servant’s door, and through a small but homey living space that Vex realizes must be where Pike and Scanlan live. Another door takes them into a storage pantry, which leads to the kitchen. At the back of the kitchen, Pike guides her to another small staircase leading downward. It takes a moment for Vex to recognize it. “Are we going to the cells?”

“Yes! Come on!” Pike shoves her forward, so Vex has no choice but to descend. 

When she gets to the bottom, Scanlan is already there, fiddling with a strange handle in the wall. Behind her, Pike locks the door to the kitchen, and puts a wooden bar across the door as an extra measure. “What is happening?” Vex hisses. 

“Orthax is happening,” Scanlan says, continuing to pry at something around the handle. “We have to hide.”

Vex blinks. “Wait. Isn’t this - does he … it need to feed?”

“We’re far beyond feeding, unfortunately,” Pike says grimly. “Lord Percival should have let the demon feed a week ago. He’s been fighting with it, but fighting is useless. It always comes to this.” She comes down the stairs and peers over Scanlan’s shoulder. “Come on, open it!”

“It’s sticking,” Scanlan says through gritted teeth. “It’s been a long time since we - ah! There!” Vex hears a click, and then a small door opens in the stone wall. Vex is a little taller than the door, but she stoops and follows the others inside. There’s not much room - with three of them, they have to practically sit on each other’s laps to fit. But they do fit, and when they’re situated, Pike closes the door behind them, then douses the lamp. The room goes black. “What now?” Vex whispers.

“Now we wait. And hope.” Scanlan sighs. “Best case scenario, Lord Percival fights him into submission until the morning, when the demon will have less power. Then we convince Lord Percival to be reasonable and let the thing feed.”

“Why - what is he doing? Why hasn’t he fed?” Vex feels like she’s missing something.

She feels Pike’s hand on her arm. “Because he …” She trails off, and simply squeezes Vex’s arm instead. 

Suddenly, there is a loud crash that seems to come from right above them. Vex cowers closer to the wall, as if the proximity will protect her from whatever is happening. “Please,” Scanlan says, almost inaudibly, “let him not remember where we hide.”

“It’s been so many years,” Pike says at the same volume. “I hope …”

Another splintering crash, the sound of a wooden bar being flung down a staircase and hitting stone, silences her. Vex feels herself press further against the stone, her breathing stops for a moment while her heart is beating so loud in her chest - surely it must be heard even through the door. Pike’s fingers dig into her arm painfully, but neither of them makes a sound. Outside their hiding place sudden silence reigns.

Inside their tiny hole in the wall the air is thick with fear and panic. Vex’s muscles burn from the accumulation of a week’s worth of exhausting work, a panicked flight in the middle of the night, but she forces herself to stay absolutely still. Her chest aches to expand and draw in a loud breath, but she’s terrified of making any sound. The monster is back, and she can’t let it hurt Pike or Scanlan. Especially if the only thing she has to do now is stay silent and still. 

It feels like an eternity, the time since they heard the last crash. Pike’s grip on Vex’s arm loosens and her fingers draw back, leaving a dull ache that Vex knows will leave a bruise behind. She hears Scanlan draw breath. Then their world explodes.

The sound of splintering wood, scraping stone and bending, breaking metal from right next to Vex forces her to cover her ringing ears. Her eyes fly up to the space where the door used to be and meet swirling, ink-black darkness with two tiny blue pinpricks of light. Fear surges through her body. He lost. The beast has found them. 

Without thinking she does the only thing left to her - arms stretched out forward, she throws herself against the darkness in her miserable attempt to protect her friends.

Her hands find no purchase in the liquid dark - at least not where she had expected them to. It feels like sinking into deep water instead of hitting a solid wall; Vex gasps in surprise, and it feels like breathing on the hottest, muggiest summer’s day. The air around her, though, chills her skin.  Then her hands, and a heartbeat later her head and chest, hit warm, solid skin. 

Skin?

Her fingers curl around what feels like an arm, muscles tensing. When it moves, she feels a hand tentatively splay on her back. And then, somewhere above her head, a voice - the terrifying dual voice. “Vex’ahlia?” It - he - sounds as confused as she is. 

Part of her wants to bolt; to let go, back away, leave this inky darkness and run from the demon that pursues them. But Pike and Scanlan are behind her somewhere … and her purpose here is clear. “Please,” she says, voice unsteady. The fingers of her free hand curl against what seems to be a solid chest. “Please, Lo … Percival.” The name is a whisper, a desperate gamble. “Be here. Please think. You’re going to hurt them.”

“Vex’ahlia,” he repeats. This time, the human voice is stronger - she still hears the demon, but it’s an undertone, an afterthought. 

“Yes. Yes,” she murmurs. Another arm curls around her, and she answers by tentatively sliding her free hand around to his back. If this soothes - placates the beast … “Percival,” she says again, taking a deep breath, “you have to let it feed.”

“No!” It’s the human voice - only the human voice, strained and strangled. “I won’t - I won’t hurt you, not again.”

Vex’s heart jumps into her throat. Without thinking, she holds him more tightly against her. “You have to,” she whispers. “Will you hurt Pike and Scanlan instead? Or kill another innocent? I won’t let you - I can’t.” As she speaks, she realizes that her terror has faded to something like background noise, replaced by a ragged determination. “Do it, Percival. I’ll live. And then we’ll have another month to figure something out.”

She can’t hear anything but the sound of her breathing - and his, raspy and shallow, his chest rising and falling against her. Maybe Pike and Scanlan took the opportunity to flee, while he was distracted. She hopes so. With some effort, she takes a step back, leaving her right hand curled around his arm. She squeezes gently to prove she’s not fleeing. “Do it,” she repeats. A strange sense of calm floods through her. “Feed it, and send it away.”

The next thing she hears is a harsh, atonal laugh. This isn’t Percival - this is Orthax, the demon alone. She fights not to tear her grip from his flesh, to stand still and not panic. “You’re a strange one, Vex’ahlia,” it says. She cannot tell if the tone is amusement or anger. “You are a conundrum.”

Shaking, she lifts her chin and closes her eyes. “I’m a willing sacrifice. Feed.”

“Very well.”

And then there’s nothing but pain and terror. But also, she thinks just before she loses consciousness, a quiet voice in the darkness. “You are a gift, Vex’ahlia.” 

  
She knows nothing after that.


	8. Interlude - Signs of Life

Ever since the moment she looked at him without fear, he’s dreaded the return of the demon inside him. From the very beginning he knew that it was no use getting to know her, getting  _ attached _ would only hurt more in the end. But she drew him in, and against his better judgment, he found himself wanting to protect her, wanting to protect that fragile thing that has formed between them.

So when Orthax awoke from its sated slumber, he locked himself in his rooms and refused its demand to summon the girl. For the first few days he maintained the upper hand by giving the demon a false reason to wait - lulling her in the illusion of safety - it liked the cruel idea enough to play along. But as the week dragged on it grew impatient - he felt its hunger and anger build inside. It became a physical struggle to stay in control of the body the demon had given him. He had not done this in so long, rebelled against his captor’s wishes, and had forgotten the pain that refusal caused.

He could not last forever. The night his resistance broke was a long horrifying nightmare - he watched, as if from afar, as Orthax tore through the house in search of its occupants. He was too weak, after a week of fighting on his own, to stop the violence. The rampage could have lasted minutes, it could have been hours; to him, it always felt like an eternity, illuminated only by a small hope that they had managed to hide, that it would not find them tonight. Perhaps they could give him another chance in the morning. But luck was not with them. At least, not in the way he first thought.

Instead, there was Vex’ahlia.

He touches his arm, for what seems like the hundredth time in the past two days.  _ His  _ arm, not the appendage given to him by Orthax. It feels like her touch should be branded on his skin; not that he would know if it was, he hasn’t seen his skin in more than a hundred years. But it’s still there, nonetheless. 

He still has human form. He wasn’t sure - he hasn’t seen - he hasn’t touched, or been touched, since the bloody deal that made him this way. Not until now. Not until her. 

Beside him, Vex’ahlia stirs. Her fever is less intense this time, perhaps because her body has endured it once before. He brings his chair closer to her bedside, tentatively reaches out to the hand that twitches at her side. He puts his hand over hers - his own hand, flesh and fingers and all, and marvels at the warmth she provides. Part of that is the illness, of course, but it’s more than that. 

He cannot see their entwined hands. Her arm is covered in writhing smoke up to her forearm, but he can feel her. That’s enough. That’s a miracle.

He lets himself touch her only for a brief moment, just this once, just until the shaking in her hand subsides. Then he pulls back, taking the darkness that covered the space between them with him. Vex is still underneath the covers again, if returned to a more pleasant dream or not, he can’t tell. 

For the ninth time in the last two days he tries to reach out and pick up the book he was reading to her with his own hand - and again is met with a barrier of black smoke. He sighs. Her touch had changed nothing - yet it changed everything. He lets the smoke pick up the book for him, open it at the last page he had left off, and continues to read.

He can’t do much for her except try to keep the bad dreams at bay in the night, while Pike spent almost every minute at her bedside by day. Guilt flaked off of them both like the peeling wallpaper in some of his rooms and they dealt with it as best they could. In his case by reading aloud to her from one of his favorite books. 

“We’ve had that one before,” Vex’s soft voice falls like a hammer between two sentences and draws him up short.

“I know. I thought you might want to remember when we continue with the new ones.”

She doesn’t open her eyes but her lips shape into an almost imperceptible smile, and lets out a faint, agreeing hum. “I like it,” she adds and seems to drift back into sleep.   

Her smile, small though it is, feels like a sunbeam. He hasn’t earned it - on the contrary, he’s done everything in his power to ruin her life. But yet, even now, she gifts him with these quiet moments, things he hasn’t had since … well, since he was human. He may not deserve them, but he’ll hold onto each one with everything he has.

He watches as the smoke curls around the book. It looks as if nothing has changed - but yet, there’s a hand under there. Limbs, skin … a person. A human, or something that vaguely resembles a human. Something he hasn’t been in a very, very long time. And he might never have realized it was still there, if it wasn’t for her.

Vex’ahlia.

He doesn’t realize he’s said her name aloud until she shifts in the bed. “Percival,” she murmurs, almost a sigh. A thrill runs through him at the sound of his name on her lips. Somehow, she’s gotten past the demon - past the being he thought he was, past the smoke and the anger and everything he traded his life for so many years ago - and found him. He hasn’t been Percival de Rolo in so long. That boy died with his family, he’s always thought. He gave his life to avenge the people he loved, and left just this murderous shell behind. But maybe, just maybe, there might be a piece of him left.

  
“Call me Percy,” he whispers. There’s no indication that she hears him, but the name hangs in the air all the same - spoken aloud, for the first time in a century.


	9. With New Eyes

Vex’s fever does not last as long this time. Perhaps her body is adjusting to this, she thinks - a bit hysterically - when she is finally conscious again. When she expresses this idea to Pike, the latter shrugs. “Or perhaps Lord Percival had a bit more control this time, thanks to whatever it was you did.”

“What did I do?” Vex asks. “I don’t really know what happened. I just … reached out, and he was there. Underneath the smoke.”

Pike looks at her curiously. “I didn’t see. You rushed forward, you disappeared into the smoke. And then, after a long few moments, you fell out, and he carried you upstairs. He hasn’t told us what happened.”

Vex is silent for a long moment. “I touched him,” she eventually says, wrapping her arms around herself. “Percival. The man. He’s there, underneath the smoke.”

Pike simply stares at her for several moments. Then, she shakes her head and holds her hand out to Vex. “I need to think about things. In the meantime, come, let me help you with your bath.”

After bathing and eating, Vex makes her way to the library. She sits in her chair, reading the same two pages over and over for what feels like hours, but he does not join her. There is no movement at the top of the stairs, no noise to indicate that he is anywhere near. She’s more disappointed than she should be. But she knows he sat with her while she was ill, she remembers his presence - and his touch. “Percy,” she says aloud, testing the name on her tongue. Then, a bit louder, “Percy, come talk to me, please.”

She gets no response.

When she goes to find Pike again the woman is just as lost in thought as she was when they parted ways. They drink their tea in silence, Vex playing idly with a spoon and wondering what it all means. Both her host - Lord Percival - and Pike have made a big deal out of her reaching inside the smoke, as if she made a monumental discovery, as if she was special. She isn’t, she doesn’t think. But at least for her, knowing that there was indeed a person - a human in body and soul - inside the smoke monster is indeed monumental. 

Before this, she had come to tolerate, then accept the fact that her host has a human soul at its core, a personality she’s grown to like over the course of their time together. His surprisingly good choice in reading material, his clever words and easy conversation when they discuss the books they read. And now she has discovered that there is even more to him, that the smoke was just a shell - and she is  _ curious _ . So many questions buzz in her mind like a swarm of bees, and he’s avoiding her without having answered a single one of them. 

Vex goes to bed early that day, having had no luck in the library that afternoon either and still feeling the exhaustion from her fever episode. She hopes that he will come out to talk to her tomorrow.

But again, he stays away. Vex spends the whole day in the library reading; this time she really does read, picks up one of the books he had picked out for her before she brought in the crate with new ones. It helps her pass the time and pull her mind away from the present as she dives into another wild adventure. But even so, when sunset pulls her away from the library, she’s out of sorts - lonely, she realizes. She’d grown used to his company. She wants more of it. 

At dinner, she broaches the subject with Pike and Scanlan. “Have either of you seen Lord Percival in the last few days?”

Scanlan is the one to respond. “He’s been holed up in his workshop. Hasn’t spoken a word to me in days.” 

“Workshop?”

“He makes things.” Pike gestures to the clock on the wall. Vex has admired it before - when it chimes the hour, a figure comes forth from the middle, dressed in purple, playing a tune on a tiny flute. “He made that for Scanlan years ago.”

“I’ve been wondering about that. How does the music play?”

“Magic,” says Scanlan, winking at her. “He makes all sorts of things like that, but mostly they just collect dust up in his workshop.”

“He’s always made things, even before,” Pike explains. “I remember, when I first started working for the family, he had just gifted his sister with a lovely little jewelry box - when the lid opened, a tiny dancer would twirl around on her toes. I’d never seen anything like it.”

“I’ve seen something like that, but it was in the city, and it cost a fortune.” And it didn’t play music like the clock, she thinks, watching the tiny bard trill along with the hour. “To think,” she says, “he is still capable of such lovely work, even trapped by a beast of such destruction.”

The smile Pike gives her is mysterious, but the woman gets up to clear dishes from the table before Vex can ask her anything.

The following morning Vex finds herself reluctant to get out of bed. She keeps her eyes closed after she wakes, listening to the soft drumming of raindrops hitting her bedroom windows. It hadn’t rained in awhile and Vex is reminded that soon the summer will be over, making way for fall and more rainy days, morning fog, leaves changing colors and time for the harvest. She thinks of Vax as she lies there, and hopes that he is doing better, that Keyleth has found something for him to do that he enjoys. That he doesn’t miss her as terribly as she misses him. She tries not to think too much of her life before, it hurts less that way, but her brother is part of her in a way nothing else is. 

Finally she opens her eyes and turns around to reach for the note Vax sent her, to read the reassuring words again … and finds something new on her nightstand, something that was not there before she went to bed. Vex blinks in confusion at the midnight blue flower bud that sits there, fist-sized and still delicate, fine silver veins running through each petal as if it had once been alive and not man-made. She knows it is, because a small silver wind-up key is inserted in its bottom base. 

Vex sits up and carefully picks it up, runs her fingers along the smooth metal-and-glass petals, marveling at how they seem so life-like and almost warm until you touch them. Then, curious, she turns the key around and around until she feels something inside click into place and she stops and takes out the key. 

At first nothing happens, then slowly the bud blooms into life, opening its petals to reveal a hidden regal figurine at its heart. Vex marvels at the exquisite work, the perfect shape of her tiny body clearly made of a dark metal, the flowing dress she is clad in shimmers in blues and blacks and looks like it is made out of a myriad of tiny feathers. She gasps as she starts to move too. The graceful spins and turns, the movement of her arms and the dress floating around her perfectly in time with a gentle melody. 

Vex can’t tear her eyes away from the wonder in her hands. For a long time after the flower has closed its petals again she still stares at it, speechless.  

And then, all at once, she rises and dresses hastily. She flies through the house, down to the library, and up the staircase. When she reaches the top, she hesitates; she hasn’t yet been up here, hasn’t defied the edict to stay out of his domain. This area at the top of the stairs is simply a well-appointed study, with a desk surrounded by piles of books, and a comfortable looking chair in the corner that holds even more books. On the other side of the desk, she sees a large door, leading to the east wing of the house. Lord Percival’s domain. Taking a deep breath, Vex forges on past the desk, and tries the door handle. It opens with ease.

She finds herself in a hallway much like the one by her bedroom. Most of the doors are closed, but when she stops, she can hear noises coming from a room near the end. She makes her way there slowly, as she begins to doubt her purpose. But now that she’s here, what good would it do to leave without at least taking a peek? 

The noises come from the second to last room on the right. The door is slightly ajar; Vex hesitates for only a moment before pushing it open just a bit more, so she can look inside. 

At first glance, the room is a disaster, but the longer she looks, the more she realizes it is organized chaos. There are piles of metal ingots lining the walls, discarded tools on an otherwise empty bookshelf in the corner, crinkled parchments spread over a table in the middle of the room. And on the other side of the room, the now-familiar smoke entity hovers over a large workbench. She opens her mouth to announce herself, but before she can say anything, his voice surprises her. “If you’re going to be here, don’t lurk. Come inside.”

She steps inside the room, but stops just past the door and crosses her arms. “Good morning to you, as well.”

He turns to look at her. His eyes are, for the moment, blessedly human-sized. “Good morning,” he says grudgingly, after a long moment.

They stare at each other silently for another moment, the emotion behind his eyes hard to read, before Vex relaxes her posture a little and gives him a careful smile. “I came to thank you for the gift you left me. I’ve never seen something so beautiful - much less had it given to me.”

He blinks at her, still silent.

“And I really like it. So, thank you, … Percy.” 

He turns his face away from her at the words, leaving her with no indication to his reaction below the layer of swirling smoke. His voice is level when he replies. “It’s not an adequate compensation for what I’ve done to you. … I am sorry.”

Vex takes a few steps into the room and shakes her head. “You did the right thing, you bought us time,” she reminds him softly. “I don’t blame you, you know.”

“Why?” His question comes out sharp, confused.

Vex shrugs despite the fact that he can’t see it. “Because I’ve learned to see the difference and not judge the book by its cover. You’re a good man, Percival.”

He gives a dry, humorless laugh. “I’m really not.”

“You try very hard to be, and that’s all that matters.”

He turns again, blue eyes once again trained on her. For a long moment, they both simply look - Vex refuses to be the first to look away. Finally, he speaks softly. “Your heart is soft.”

“Perhaps. I find it better than the alternative.” She takes a chance and approaches the work bench. “Will you show me what you’re working on?”

When he speaks, Vex thinks she detects a note of surprise in his voice. “It’s … it’s not much yet. The book we were reading, about the ship’s captain, made me wonder if I could build a functioning miniature ship. Though,” he continues, “I’m not sure why. I have nowhere to sail it except the bathtub.”

She stands by his side; she can see the frame of the ship, rendered in metal, with a few small, immaculately cut wooden boards already attached to the bottom. When she looks closer, she can see that he’s even built a cabin at the rear of the ship, to match the captain’s quarters in the book. “This is amazing. It’s going to be gorgeous when it’s finished.”

“Gorgeous and useless, like most of my work. But what else have I to do?”

“I don’t believe it’s useless.” Vex runs a finger over the ship’s frame. “When I was a child, my mother tried to get me to learn how to embroider. I was mediocre at best, but I did enjoy the work. But it was hard for me to look at my finished work and know that it would never be good enough to display or use. When I complained, my mother told me that nothing was useless, not as long as it taught me something or made me happy. You’re far better at this than I was at embroidery,” she adds, “which isn’t surprising, but still. If it makes you happy, it’s not useless.”

“I’m not sure I remember how happy feels,” he says.

Vex looks up at him. He’s looking down at the ship; she’s standing close enough to him that black smoke swirls around her arm. She hesitates a moment, before bringing her hand up and tentatively reaching into the smoke. She lets it drift until she feels skin, at which point she lays a hand on his arm. The smoke swirls; his eyes snap to her. She’s not sure what to say, so she simply squeezes his arm gently, then brings her hand back down. She’s shaking, just a bit, but she manages to give him a small smile.

He looks at her for a little longer, eyes wide with surprise. Vex is surprised with herself, with her own boldness. And neither of them seems to know what to say to that. 

To her luck, and mortification, her stomach decides at that moment to remind her with a distinct growl that she stayed in bed for too long and then skipped breakfast to rush up here. Vex feels heat rise up her cheeks and quickly turns towards the door. “I should get downstairs, Pike probably has lunch ready by now.”

She’s nearly through the door when she hears him speak. “Would you like to continue with the book this afternoon?”

Vex stops and turns her head to look back. “Yes, I would like that.” She wants to ask if he’ll show her the ship when it is finished, but saves it for later. There’s still some time. With a quick flash of a smile she continues her way out and makes for the kitchen. 

Downstairs, Pike is already waiting for her with food on the table and curious look on her face. She doesn’t pry, despite the fact that it clearly costs her a lot of effort to stay quiet, and Vex is really grateful for that. Instead Pike surprises her with an entirely unexpected question after a few minutes. “Have you ever met the great bear that lives in the forest surrounding the castle?”

Vex takes a second to swallow her food and her astonishment before she responds. “Actually I did. The night I came here for my brother. I think it saved me from  _ something else _ in the woods.”

Pike nods as if that only proves some theory of hers. “It spoke to Keyleth.” When Vex gapes at her, she laughs. “Yes, I know, I looked just as surprised as you when she told me. It seems to be an old Ashari magic that lets them communicate.” 

“The bear … spoke to Keyleth.” Vex thinks about it for a moment, then spreads her hands. “I’m in a house with three immortal people, one of whom is possessed by a demon. I suppose talking bears are just logical at this point.”

“I think we left logic behind about a century ago.”

“Probably.” Vex sits back in her chair. She remembers the bear vividly, remembers watching as it inserted itself between Vex and her unseen pursuers. “What did the bear say?” 

“It said …” Pike trails off for a moment; she stops eating and folds her hands in her lap before looking back at Vex. “It apparently prevented your brother from coming to the castle with Keyleth. It told them that you’re their only hope - the forest creatures, presumably.”

Vex blinks. “Hope? How?”

“I don’t know. Neither does Keyleth. But it was very insistent that you stay here, that something about your presence was necessary.” Pike’s gaze is steady, Vex finds she can’t look away. “But now, after … I wonder if this is what it meant. You’ve already changed things. Maybe you can break the curse.”

“What?” Vex stands up, needing to pace off some of her nerves. “How can I do that? What have I changed?”

“You touched him. Lord Percival. No one’s done that in … well, since before Orthax. Quite frankly, I didn’t know that his human body was still in there. That has to mean something.”

“I don’t know what. So I can reach through the smoke. What now? I don’t know any magic, what else am I supposed to do?”

“I don’t know,” Pike admits. “But things are happening, things I haven’t seen before. It can’t be a coincidence.”

“Are you sure? Maybe it is. Maybe the bear is wrong.” Vex wrings her hands and keeps pacing. 

“We need to talk to it again. Or more accurately, Keyleth would need to. I’ll ask her if she can attempt that, next time she comes.” Pike sounds more resolute by the moment. 

Vex sighs and sits back down at the table to finish her food, even if she stopped tasting what she is eating. “This is a lot to take in,” she mumbles between bites. When her plate is empty she thanks Pike for the meal and excuses herself. For half an hour she simply wanders down halls, digesting what she just heard. Was she really supposed to be able to break the curse? Not that she wouldn’t want to, she wants to help, she wants to  _ live _ . But Vex simply doesn’t know how. 

When she enters the library in the afternoon, Percival is already waiting for her on his usual spot, the book they were reading before the week of waiting and the week of mending held open by his smoke form. “I hope you didn’t start without me,” she says teasingly, her mood already brightening at the prospect of a good story and his company.

“I would never!” He sputters, and Vex laughs.

“I’m just teasing, Percy,” she placates him and after a thought and a moment’s pause picks up her chair and carries it next to his. “This one has beautiful illustrations, I want to see them,” she says as she sits down in way of explanation. 

He simply stares at her for a long moment. Vex just looks back at him, curling her legs underneath her in the chair. It’s rather a wonder, that she’s not frightened of him any more. She even has the urge to reach out and play with the smoke that curls over his arm, to see if she can make patterns in the air like she used to do with the smoke that rose from the hearth fire. But instead, she leans her elbows on the arm of the chair and continues to look steadily at him. Finally, he makes a noise that sounds suspiciously like a cough, looks down, and begins to read.

The next few days continue much the same; she takes to helping Pike in the mornings, giving Percy time in his workshop, and in the afternoons they read together. One afternoon, though, when she enters the library, he’s standing on the staircase. “I finished the ship,” he says. “Would you like to come see?”

“Oh, yes!” When he gestures up the stairs and towards his private wing, she cheerfully follows him. 

She notices, with a bit of amusement, that his workshop has been cleaned up a bit - she wonders if he did this himself, or if he asked Pike or Scanlan to do it. But then she looks toward the workbench, and the rest of the room is forgotten. The small ship sits on a metal stand, resplendent in wood and iron, with lovely white sails adorning the top. And the sails, to her surprise, are fluttering and straining, as if already carrying the ship through a strong breeze. “It’s beautiful,” she breathes, walking forward to inspect it more closely. She raises her hand behind the sails, but cannot feel any breeze. “How did you do that?”

“My … companion grants me a bit of magic. I like occasionally using it for something nice.” He comes up alongside her. “Everything else, though, I built.” There’s a sense of pride in his voice.

Vex runs a finger very gently along the railing, from bow to stern, admiring the intricate work. “It’s incredibly beautiful, your work,” she repeats her words as her eyes try to take in every detail at once, overwhelmed by the sheer mass of them. “So life-like.”

“So you have seen a ship before?” He asks curiously - hopefully.

Vex turns to look up at him. “Only in illustrations, but I can imagine what it would look like if it weren’t just paint.”

“It’s not quite the same as looking at the real thing, though.”

“No, but we make due with what we have.” She smiles, and as she says the words a thought steals into her mind, a tempting idea that takes root inside her and won’t be shaken off. Vex feels warmth rise up her neck. “Percy … can I look at you?” She asks before nerves get the better of her. 

“Look at me?” He sounds confused. “But you are.”

Vex shakes her head and takes one step towards him. “No, I’m really not.” Slowly she lifts both hands up towards him, the smoke that is drifting off his outer form swirling around her fingers. For a moment she expects him to take a step back or deny her bold request. But he does nothing of the sort, he just looks down at her with questions in his eyes and then takes a step towards her, inky darkness swallowing her up to her elbows. 

Now that she knows what to expect, Vex is neither surprised nor frightened when she slips into the smoke. She is blind in here, but she doesn’t need her eyes to see. Her outstretched hands find his chest again, smooth, warm skin with a smattering of hair. She takes another step so that they can glide up and reach his shoulders and then follow his neck up to find his jaw. Her fingertips rasp over light stubble as she determines the shape of his jawline - angular, sharp - and spread when she cups his cheeks with her hands. 

“After so many years,” she says softly, with a hint of amusement, “you’d think you’d have more of a beard.”

From the darkness in front of her, she hears an intake of breath, then a soft chuckle. “I think I must be the same as I was when … when this happened. Much like Pike and Scanlan.”

“That would make sense.” Vex brings a finger over to run along his nose, which feels the same sort of angular as his jaw. Now she can feel his breath on her skin, mingling with the warm, humid feeling of the smoke. For just a moment, by accident, her finger slips down far enough to touch his lips. She doesn’t anticipate the warmth there - either on her skin, or inside her chest. Quickly, she slides her hand back to his cheek, and continues her journey upwards.

The next surprise she finds is a wire frame against his temple. “You’re wearing glasses!”

“I was always blind without them.”

She follows the frame around and over the top. “Can you see my hand in front of your eyes?” she wonders?

“No.” He sounds a bit disappointed. “My vision is clearly part of the outer shell now.”

“Hmmm. Interesting.” Now her hands both move up and back, to find his hair. It’s just long enough for her to bury her hands in. The texture is surprisingly soft. When she strokes backward, Percy lets out a shuddering sigh. “Is that okay?” she asks, though she’s fairly sure the sound was a good one. 

“Yes.” The word is no more than a breath, and Vex takes it as permission to run her hands through his hair again. She lets her fingers run up and through a few times, then drops her hands to the back of his head, threading her fingers through the short hair just above the nape of his neck. All the while, she hears him taking deep, deliberate breaths. Finally, when she curls her fingers into his hair, he speaks again, his voice low and trembling. “Vex …”

She’s trembling, too - when did that begin? She’s not sure. But the one thing she does know is that it’s past time to end her explorations. Still, she lets her fingers trail back over his neck and shoulders as she steps back. When she’s back in the light, she feels … oddly empty. “Thank you,” she murmurs, feeling a blush creep into her cheeks. 

“No,” he says, still in that oddly tremulous low voice, “thank you.” 

His gaze is too much - Vex finds, at the moment, she’d rather be back in the warm darkness, with only her hands to guide her. She averts her gaze, biting her lip. “Maybe we should go read -”

“Yes,” he says quickly, speaking over her. “We should go back to the library.”    
She lets him lead the way, her fingers flexing by her side. For the rest of the day, and well into the night, she can still feel him on the tips of her fingers. When she can’t sleep, she turns on her side and winds up the flower dancer over and over again, letting the figure’s movement and the sweet, soft melody lull her into her rest.


	10. Interlude - Grasping at Straws

Keyleth has a problem, and his name is Vax’ildan.

Well, she has several problems, including the fact that her best friend is trapped at Whitestone Castle, but Vax is the closest problem at hand.

Vax has never gone back to his home, not since he stumbled out of the forest that night. That isn’t a problem. He works hard, both at the store and at the farm, and he can be good company. (Especially late at night, ever since she got up the nerve to invite him into her bed. He needs someone to hold onto, and honestly, so does she. He’s a comfort, and she hopes she provides at least a small bit of comfort to him.) When he lets himself, he’s witty and charming and a great listener. Keyleth could see herself asking him to stay permanently, if he wanted. 

But then there are the bad days.

They’re more infrequent now than they were at the beginning, thank all the gods. Those first few weeks, he threw himself at every dead end he could find, trying to find a way to Vex. He did respect the bear’s threat, for which Keyleth is grateful, but that didn’t stop him from trying to find ways around the forest. The first week, he disappeared for three days, only coming back when he realized that it would take weeks to skirt around the forest. He paid one of the local miners to show him through a series of mining tunnels in the mountain, hoping they’d lead somewhere close to the cliff where the castle resides. He actively considers trying to scale the mountain and come down from above, until Keyleth locks him in the farmhouse and pleads with him to stop. “What do you want me to do?” he asks, anguish naked on his face. “Trust the word of a talking bear? Accept that my sister has to die in order to do something for the animals in the forest? I can’t do that.”

“I’m asking you to trust me for a little while,” she says. “I’ve got most of our elders scouring their books and brains, trying to remember what they can about the magic in the forest. That’s what will save her, Vax. We can’t help her if we don’t know what kind of magic is at work here.”

He doesn’t continue to argue with her after that, but she can see that he is not convinced. His mouth is a hard line for several long moments, his shoulders tense with suppressed rage. He doesn’t come to bed that night. 

But the next days seem to be better again. He helps around the farm and in the shop, and Keyleth even sees him heading into town for a few hours and returning just after sunset, calmer and more composed. She is glad for those days, and when she asks him what he had been up to and he replies that he only went for a pint with some old friends, she is tentatively hopeful. 

One morning, when she is about to head out into the forest to make her deliveries, he hands her a small satchel. “Would you take that to my sister? I want her to know that I haven’t forgotten her, and that I’m alright.” 

“Of course, I’ll pass it on,” Keyleth replies with a gentle smile and kisses his cheek. “I’m sure she will be glad to hear that.” He is clearly making progress, even if her elders haven’t so far. 

When she returns from the forest that afternoon, Vax is sitting on the front porch of the house carving carefully at a block of wood. Keyleth settles down next to him, and watches him silently for a while. “What are you carving?” she finally asks, intrigued.

“A reminder,” Vax says without looking up and keeps working on it long into the night, perched in front of the fire. When Keyleth wakes the next morning, he is curled up on the rug sleeping, the uncanny likeness of the master of the castle sitting between him and the embers of the fire. Keyleth has only seen the monster once, when it came to the door to issue an order to Pike, but she’ll never forget its dense, smoky form. She sits next to Vax and picks up the figure, turning it over in her hands.

When Vax wakes, he sits up, leaning lightly against Keyleth. “That’s what we’re up against.”

“I know,” she says and leans over to kiss his cheek. “We’ll get her back. I promise.”

He’s calmer after that. He still disappears from time to time - to do what, Keyleth doesn’t know, but he comes back in decent spirits, and he seems to be reintegrating into the town well. Most people have stopped avoiding him, or giving him pitying looks when he passes, which helps. And Keyleth’s Ashari family likes him, too. It gives her hope that, maybe, after all this is over, he may stay.

One night, he comes into the shop as Keyleth is getting ready to close up. “Come to the tavern with me,” he says. “There’s someone I want you to meet.”

Keyleth lets him lead her across town, to the bustling tavern, full of people drinking and talking and laughing. Vax takes her to a table in the corner, where she sees the largest man she’s ever met downing a large pint of ale. He’s bald, with a big bushy beard, and he greets Vax like an old friend. “Keyleth,” Vax says, “this is Grog. He recently took a job here in town.”

She shakes the giant man’s hand and sits down next to Vax. “What kind of job?”

“Bodyguard,” Grog says, waving at the serving girl for another pint. “Woman traveling from Emon, she’s gonna be working around here for a while, an’ wanted someone to watch her back an’ do some heavy liftin’.”

“Grog’s employer is here because …” Vax trails off, turning back to Grog. “Is she here tonight? Can you introduce us?”

Grog stands up, peering over the crowd. “Oh, yeah, there she is.” He waves, then sits back down. “She’s comin’ over.”

Keyleth looks at Vax - he seems to be practically vibrating with excitement. Something twitches in her chest, a feeling of dread that’s hard to ignore. “Vax, what’s going on? Who is this woman?”

“You’ll see.” Vax squeezes her hand. “I hope … well, you’ll see.”

A moment later, a woman appears at their table; she’s at least ten years older than Keyleth or Vax, with a bit of gray threading through her long hair, and a nondescript brown traveling suit that matches the rest of her hair. She nods at Grog, then turns to Vax. “You’re the boy whose sister is imprisoned in the castle, aren’t you?”

Vax nods. “Grog tells me that’s why you’re here.” 

Keyleth studies the woman, as the woman studies Vax. There’s something about her eyes, something that makes Keyleth hold onto Vax’s hand a little harder. She wants to stand up and pull him away. She wants to leave this woman here and never return. She doesn’t know why - she’s never been blessed with premonition, not really, but Ashari believe that instincts happen for a reason. And every instinct Keyleth has says that something here is very, very wrong.  


After a moment of silence, the woman holds her hand out to Vax and smiles. “I’m Dr. Anna Ripley, and I’m going to help you get your sister back.”


	11. Past and Present

One afternoon, after lunch, Vex hears the sound of the pianoforte coming from the music room. Curious, she follows the sound, only to find Scanlan sitting on the instrument’s bench. “I didn’t know you played,” she says from the doorway.

He continues the music. “I’m the only one in the castle who plays. If you want music around here, I’m your man.”

“Perhaps not the only one anymore.” Vex sits down at the bench beside him. “I had lessons, back when we lived with my father. I never got very good, but I think that was more because my tutor didn’t want to be there. Teaching the lord’s bastard daughter was beneath him, apparently.”

“Would you like to learn more?” When she looks at him, Scanlan shrugs. “We don’t have a lot to do around here, and dearest Pike stopped appreciating my music a long time ago. Might be nice to have a partner in melodic crime, so to speak.”

Vex smiles. “You know what? That could be fun.” 

Scanlan takes his fingers off the keys and gives her an encouraging smile. “Well, then let me hear what you can do.”

With just the tiniest bit of hesitation Vex follows his directions and places her hands on the keys like she was taught. The first notes she plays are too sharp, too loud as she hits the keys with too much force, and the melody comes only slowly together. It has been so long ago since Vex had the opportunity to play the piano, she had still been so young, somewhere in that strange state between a child and an adult, and her body has forgotten most of the things she had been only halfheartedly taught. But she forges on, note by note, until the sounds are less harsh and abrupt and she has made it all the way through the only piece she can remember.

“Now that wasn’t so bad for a start,” Scanlan says and when she turns her head to look at him to determine if he is just being polite, the look she finds on his face is one she hasn’t seen him wear before. He looks as if he is just remembering something, as if he just comes up from the depth of a deja-vu.

“Scanlan?” 

Her voice snaps him out of his thoughts and he faces her with a grin. “I think we should start with a few basic finger exercises and I’ll show you a new melody to practice. We can go from there.” 

Vex smiles and nods at him. “Alright. Show me.”

It becomes a daily habit, their music lessons. Vex is surprised at how much she enjoys it. “Learning to play was such a slog when I was young, but I suppose it really does depend on the teacher,” she says one day.

Scanlan gives her a bright, genuine smile. “I used to teach the de Rolo children, you know. The two girls, mostly, though Oliver was surprisingly interested in music as well.” 

Vex begins playing her new tune again. “What were they like?” she asks. “The others - the rest of the family?”

“Oh, like any rich family, I suppose.” Scanlan shrugs. “Good people, a little self-centered, but mostly just like anyone else.” When she stumbles over a few bars, he stops her and repositions her hands before continuing. “I knew Miss Vesper the best, I suppose. She was the second child, a little older than Lord Percival. I was originally hired to be her music tutor. She was a beautiful girl, whip-smart and always ready with a comeback if she thought you were being impertinent. Honestly, she reminded me a lot of …” Scanlan trails off for a moment, then shrugs again. “I had a little girl myself, once upon a time. I didn’t see a lot of her. I wasn’t a very good father, truth be told. But she was a good girl.” 

Vex’s fingers pause on the keys. “I’m sorry.”

“What’s there to be sorry about now? I’m sure Kaylie lived a long, full, happy life. I was mostly absent even when I could leave the castle, there wasn’t much difference after all this.” It takes a moment, but finally, Scanlan elbows her. “Enough moping. Try it again.” When Vex continues, he goes back to talking about the de Rolos. “I also taught Miss Cassandra, in the last few years. She was the youngest, and she wasn’t terribly happy about having to learn music. I think she was more like Lord Percival - in fact, I saw her trailing after him more than once, a tiny girl asking question after question about whatever tinkering project he was working on at the time.”

He trails off after that, watching Vex’s fingers with more interest than necessary, and Vex doesn’t push further. The death of the family must have hit him hard as well. To be honest, she is curious. There were just rumors about their death, no one knew the facts and when the story finally reached Vex’s ears is was no more than a tale as old as the castle itself. She would like to know what really happened here, but doesn’t yet dare to ask - neither of the castle’s occupants.

Just like Vex spends now every morning learning to play the piano from Scanlan, the afternoons are reserved for reading with Percy. The strange, heavy air between them has cleared the next afternoon following their conversation in the workshop - for the most part at least. Vex still occupies the spot next to his chair, able to look at the book and the window from there. And if they were discussing a particular paragraph of what they just read and Vex’s hand slips into the smoke to give his arm a squeeze when she tries to make a point, well. 

Today is not much different. After music lessons with Scanlan and lunch with Pike, Vex finds her way to the library. Percy is nowhere in sight yet so she just settles in her regular chair with one of the heavy illustrated tomes and, tucking her feet underneath her, leafs through the pages to distract herself. A few minutes later, she hears his voice from the staircase. “Interesting choice. Not much reading aloud to be done from that one.”

Vex turns her head and sticks out her tongue. “I’m waiting for you, you goon. We ended yesterday with a cliffhanger, I wasn’t going to read ahead without you.” 

“I appreciate the thought, though I have read that book at least a half-dozen times.” 

Percy sits next to her as she scowls. “Well, don’t spoil it for me, I want to hear what happens in the story.” 

“I would never.” But instead of picking up their book, he leans over and looks at the book in her lap. “That one was my sister’s favorite if I recall.”

Vex raises an eyebrow at him. She’s never heard him mention his family before. “Which sister?” 

“Cassandra, the youngest. When she was very young, she would ask me to pull it from the shelves all the time, so she could look at the pictures. She didn’t understand a thing, of course, but she liked the designs.”

Vex looks back down at the book in her lap. It’s an interesting book, talking about superstitions and the influence of folk magic on the myths of Tal’dorei. The writing in it is dry, but the pictures are illustrations of various folk tales and legends. She can see why a young girl would find it fascinating. “What was she like?” she asks, a bit tentatively.

The smoke form has no expression, but Vex senses pain in Percy’s hesitation. She nearly opens her mouth again to take the question back, but then he speaks. “She was a terror. The youngest of seven, of course she was a spoiled brat. But she was smart and funny, and she was probably the member of my family most interested in the things I made. I was constantly chasing her out of my workshop, afraid she’d break something.” He sighs. “I was six years older than her, and at the age we were, that felt like a hundred years. I spent so much time trying to get away from her, trying not to be childish anymore.”

Vex reaches through the smoke to take his hand. “Everyone is like that when they’re young.”

“I know. That doesn’t help, not really.”

“I’m sorry,” Vex says and feels him squeeze her hand in response. 

“So am I… Shall we continue with the book?” Percy sighs and changes the subject. Vex gives him a smile and a nod, and he picks up the book they were reading yesterday to continue with the story. Her hand stays in his the entire time. 

When Vex joins Percy in the library the following day he’s already sitting in his usual chair and waiting for her with an open book in front of him that he puts away as soon as she approaches him. Instead of taking her place next to him though, Vex stops to stand in front of him. ”I forgot to tell you something yesterday, something important, so let me do this now. Thank you for telling me about your sister. That must have been really hard to do, and you didn’t have to. I appreciate it.” 

He is quiet for a moment, and when he speaks Vex can hear the soft tremor in his voice. “Thank you for listening … and understanding.”

“Anytime,” she replies and smiles.

Before she can decide to sit down though, the smoke body rises from the chair and glides past her a few feet towards the staircase. “I want to show you something, Vex. Follow me.” He leads her up the stairs and down the corridor of his wing into a room she hasn’t seen before. He has to unlock it, and the even cover of dust on every surface of the room tells Vex that no one has entered it for a very long time. It’s a study, judging by the desk and seating arrangements, and for a moment she is confused what is so special about this room - until Percy points her towards the framed painting on the wall above the fireplace. Neither of them speaks as Vex moves closer to take a better look. 

It’s a family portrait. A woman sitting in a high-back chair with two identical looking little boys on her lap, her husband standing at her side. His hands are resting on the shoulders of a young man and a young woman, both a toddler in their arms. A boy and a girl, judging by the colors of the blankets. On the other side of his mother, his hands folded in front of him, another young man. They are all richly attired, the hair color varying between a dark blond and brown. Blue and gray eyes looking down at her from across time. Percy’s family.    

She studies the portrait for a long moment. “Are you in this picture?” she asks finally.

The smoke gestures to the young man with folded hands. “That was a very long time ago.”

Vex looks at that figure closer - young Percy, fully human, fully innocent. He has a pair of gold-rimmed spectacles perched on his nose, and his expression is deadly earnest. “You were adorable,” she says, smiling. 

“I’m not sure ‘adorable’ was the look I was going for, even then,” he says dryly. Then, he begins pointing out the rest of his family. Mother and father, Johanna and Frederick. The twins, Oliver and Whitney. Julius and Vesper, older than Percy, holding Ludwig and Cassandra. “I remember how much of a struggle it was to get the young ones to stay still enough for the sketches,” he says. “Julius and Vesper were mad that I didn’t have to hold anyone, they complained constantly until Mother threatened to make them hold the twins, as well.”

“And you still got off easy.” 

“Sometimes, being seen as the smart but frail one had its advantages.” There’s a soft, fond tone in his voice that she’s never heard. It makes her step closer to the smoke and reach through, laying a hand on his arm. Percy clears his throat, then continues. “I haven’t been in this room in many years. It’s difficult … remembering. But you make it easier. I don’t know how, or why, but you do.”

Vex has to swallow a lump in her throat. “You deserve better than this.”

“I’m not sure I do. But thank you for thinking so.”

“You do. And I want to show you something as well. Come?” The heaviness in Vex’s heart makes room for determination. He has shown her something of himself, an important piece of his past, and Vex thinks that this trust is best repaid in kind. 

He follows her without complaint back down into the library and through the house up to her room. It’s a more complicated route than it needs to be; the corridor that his rooms are on runs into the main staircase, and there is a doorway that would lead directly to the hall next to her room. But the large double doors are closed and held shut by large chains - and Vex knows only too well why they are in place. 

Vex opens her door and walks over to the nightstand, noticing with a soft pang in her chest that Percy stays at the threshold. He spent so much time here caring for her while she fought the fever, but now he seems almost too timid to intrude on her space. She picks up the hairpin and turns back towards him. “This belonged to my mother,” Vex says and holds the flower out for him to look at. To her relief he hesitates only for a short moment before drifting close and looking down at her hand. “She was a seamstress from Byroden, and a very kind woman who had to raise two children all by herself, despite the fact that she barely made enough money to support just herself. In all the time we had together, this hairpin was the only thing I can remember her buying for her own pleasure. A traveling merchant charged her one silver piece for it.” Vex smiles at the memory and laughs a little. “His cart attracted the whole town. It was painted in the most ostentatious shade of purple you can imagine, with bold gold lettering on the side - Gilmore’s Glorious Goods, it read.”

Percy’s voice is soft when he asks, “What happened to her?” 

“A fire. Lightning struck the woods next to Byroden, and the wind blew the resulting fire into town. Her cottage was right next to the woods. She never had a chance.” Vex looks down at the hairpin. “We weren’t there. My father discovered our existence a few years earlier, and took us to live with him. I don’t know why, he never really wanted us, but he was rich. People like my mother don’t say no to rich men. Honestly, sometimes I wonder if that’s how …” She inhales sharply, and falls silent. That’s not a theory she’s discussed with anyone, not even Vax. “She told us once that they were in love, she and our father, if only for a time. But I can’t imagine it. She was so lovely, so vibrant, and he’s nothing but an egotistical ass who has no use for anyone less fortunate than he. The idea that he would ever care for someone not of his social class is absurd.” She turns the hairpin over in her hand. “When we left, she gave this to me. She told me the heather was for protection and good fortune, and that she wished both for me, always.” 

She trails off. After a long moment of silence, she sees the smoke envelop her free hand, just before she feels fingers close over hers. “I’m sorry.”

Vex squeezes his hand. “It’s hard sometimes, remembering. But it’s good too. It helps to remember that there was love there.”

“Yes.” 

“I’m glad we’ve talked. You’re right, it’s somehow easy to tell you these things.” Vex looks up at his glowing blue eyes and smiles. She’s grateful, for him telling her about his family and listening to her talk about her mother, comfort her. They both seem to have needed this - these conversations, the support. But this time she feels like just holding his hand is not entirely enough, not after all that they have shared between them. Vex half-turns and puts the hairpin down on the nightstand behind her before she addresses Percy. “Is it okay if I give you a hug?”

There is a beat of silence before his reply. “Yes.”

Vex dives into the now almost familiar darkness of the smoke, following the tug of his hand on hers. Her outstretched free hand finds his side and slides around to his back when she is close enough to rest her head on his chest. His skin is warm against hers and she can hear the steady beating of his heart. It speeds up a little when Vex lets go of his hand to wrap it around him as well and a moment later she feels his arms tentatively circle around her shoulders. It’s soothing, being able to hold him close and convey comfort in a way she is familiar with - and give something he has lacked for far too long.  

“Is it okay if I hold you for just a little while longer?” he asks her with such a quiet voice Vex almost doesn’t hear it.

“Yes,” she replies, smiling to herself. She closes her eyes and allows herself to enjoy the feeling of his skin against her cheek.

It’s so comforting that it takes her another minute to process the sensations she’s feeling. Or rather, what she’s not feeling. Her hands brush tentatively down his back - she feels only skin, no cloth to impede her touch. She feels the same against her cheek, and through the light fabric that makes up the torso of her dress. Percy is tall enough that his hips align with her lower belly, and … “Oh,” she says aloud, eyes widening. She should really step back, let go - this is so improper - but honestly, there’s no etiquette guide to help her through this situation. 

“What?” he asks, his voice a rumble against her cheek. 

Vex feels rather too warm. But yet, she can’t make herself let go. “Um. Well. You’re … I just noticed … you’re not wearing any clothing.”

“What?” There’s a long pause, and then she feels Percy tense. “Oh. I see.”

Neither of them move for another long moment - but then Vex’s senses finally return to her, and she takes two large steps backward, until her vision returns. She’s absolutely sure her cheeks are flaming red. “Well,” she says, looking away. Which is silly, it’s not like she can see him, but somehow she can’t even bring herself to look at his smoke form right now.

“I’m - I’m sorry,” he says, his voice sounding a bit strangled. “I guess … it’s been so long … and there’s no real need. I’d forgotten.”

“Of course. Why would you?” The perverse thing is, Vex still craves his touch. Perhaps even more now than before. She fists her hands at her side to keep from reaching out for him again. “It’s not a … I just wasn’t expecting that, that’s all.” 

“No, no, I shouldn’t have …” When she looks up again, he’s drifting back towards the door. “I shouldn’t have - it was wrong, I’m sorry.”

“Percy, no. Please stop.” He freezes just inside the door. Vex takes a deep breath and crosses to him. “It isn’t wrong to want … to be touched. And I like - that is, I want -” Her face still burns, but she pushes forward. “I don’t mind. Really.”

“Really? You…”

“Yes, really,” Vex breathes with relief when he doesn’t leave and manages a smile.

“I- okay.” He makes a sound that sounds very much like he’s clearing his throat and Vex senses that he needs some time to process - and so does she. But first she wants to make sure he knows she’s still comfortable with him. She doesn’t want him to go back to avoiding her or treating her like a stranger, not after the progress they’ve made. 

So she takes the final few steps towards him, slipping into the shadows with outstretched hands that quickly find his shoulders. He doesn’t resist when she pulls him down towards her and bridges the last bit of space by going up on her tiptoes. Vex hears a surprised intake of breath as she gives him a soft kiss on the cheek. She wants to linger there with her lips pressed to his skin, but that would be too much to ask for. Yet there is a light touch on her hips, just as she lets go and steps back out of the smoke. 

It takes him a moment to react. “So… we’ll talk later,” he says and before she can reply, he’s through the door and out of her sight. 

She stands there for a little while longer, rooted to the spot, her heart pounding, before she pulls herself together. Almost without thinking, she walks back to the nightstand and picks up the pin before making her way down to the kitchen. Pike is there, kneading dough for a pie or bread rolls. She looks up as Vex comes in and her smiling face turns inquisitive. 

“Vex, are you alright? You look a little flushed.”

“Oh. Yes, yes I’m fine.”   

Pike looks at her for a long moment, then turns back to her dough. “Keyleth will be here tomorrow,” she says. “And I was thinking, maybe we should ask her to try to call and talk to the bear again.”

Right. Vex had nearly forgotten about the bear. As her skin continues to burn from Percy’s touch, she looks at the hairpin, still in her hand. “Protection and good fortune,” she murmurs.

“What was that?”

“Nothing.” She reaches up and slides the pin into her hair. “I think that’s a great idea. Let’s see what this bear has to say.”

The next day, Vex answers the door when the bell sounds. Keyleth stands beyond; her eyes are angled downward, clearly expecting to see Pike. When she looks up to see Vex, she launches herself into Vex’s arms. “Oh, Vex, it’s you, you’re really okay!”

Vex feels tears welling in her eyes as she hugs her friend. “It’s me. I’m fine. Everything is fine.” When Keyleth pulls back to look her in the eye, Vex gives her a sheepish smile. “Okay, maybe not totally fine. But as good as it can be, under the circumstances.”

“You look pale. But otherwise …” Keyleth lets out a long breath. “Vax will be really happy to hear that I saw you.”

“Is he …”

“He’s fine,” Keyleth speaks over her. A shadow passes over Keyleth’s face, but she continues speaking before Vex can ask anything else. “Where’s Pike? Why are you … I mean, I’m really happy to see you, but I didn’t think …”

“I’m not - well, I am a prisoner, but mostly like Pike and Scanlan. Sort of. It’s hard to explain.” 

Before they can say anything else, Pike joins them. The women bring all the packages inside the castle; when they’re done with the last load, Pike turns to Keyleth. “We were wondering, do you think you could call the bear up to the gate? I think we need to talk to it.”

Keyleth looks from Pike to Vex, then nods. “Yes. I think that’s a good idea. I don’t know if I can call it, but I can try.”

They walk up to the gate together and Keyleth steps outside before clearing her throat and calling out. “Elder, we wish to speak to you!” 

Vex’s eyes are trained on the edge of the forest, trying to pierce the shadows between the trees and see if anything is approaching. They wait for a few minutes or so before Keyleth calls out again. She turns to them and lifts her hands in a helpless motion when nothing happens. 

“Call a third time,” Pike prompts her and Vex nods encouragingly. It had taken her three times as well until she had been let into the castle the day she came to trade herself for Vax. Maybe it was the same with the bear. So Keyleth calls out a third time and they wait - but not for long. A low rumbling sound comes from behind the trees and shortly after a huge brown bear lumbers out towards them. The last time Vex saw it, it had protected her from something in the forest but she had been in such a hurry to flee that she had not taken any time to really look at it. Now, in the sunlight she sees just how large a beast it is, but it looks nearly docile when it sits back on its lower haunches just across from them and tilts its head. It stays just beyond the gate, just as they stay just inside. Vex suspects only Keyleth can cross that line, at this point.

“Thank you for coming, Elder,” Keyleth says and bows. Vex mimics her movement.

“And thank you for protecting me,” Vex adds before continuing, “I- we need your help. There seems to be a way to break the curse that lays on the people in this castle, but we don’t know much about it. Is there anything you can tell us?”

The bear looks at her for a moment before growling - no, replying, judging by the way Keyleth keeps nodding at it. After a minute, Keyleth turns to them. “It said that you already did half of it, I assume when you offered yourself for Vax. The second part requires you to remove the seed. Or dispel it? I’m not entirely sure about the wording there, this whole talking to animals thing is still so new to me.” 

“Seed? Does that mean Orthax?” Pike thinks out loud.

“Sorry, that’s all I could understand,” Keyleth apologizes.     

“No, it’s alright. Thank you Keyleth. And thank you very much, Elder,” Vex says and bows towards the bear. 

The bear stares at Vex for a long moment, its large, liquid eyes boring into her. Then it speaks again; Keyleth furrows her brow before translating. “Care for him, it says. He is not the monster. I’m not sure …”

Before she can finish, Vex steps closer to the gate, just shy of the barrier that keeps them apart. “I know,” she says to the bear. “Believe me, I do.”

The bear nods, then stands up and lumbers back into the forest. 

When she turns back, Pike gives her a small smile, while Keyleth just looks confused. “It’s okay,” Vex tells her friend, giving her a quick hug. “We’ll figure it out. It’ll all be fine. Tell Vax it’s going to be okay.”

“I don’t know if I believe that, but I’ll try.”  


As Keyleth disappears back into the trees, Vex allows herself a small laugh. “Me too,” she whispers into the breeze. “Me too.”


	12. Interlude - Something there

“Life is short and full of surprises, so make the best of it.” That’s what Pike’s grandfather used to say. Through a cruel twist of fate her life turned out exactly the opposite - a century of the same day played on repeat, like one of Scanlan’s pieces on the piano. Vex’s appearance in their life changed that - it was the first in a line of surprises and unexpected developments. And true to character, following the advice of Pa Wilhand, Pike does the best she could.   

Which now includes listening to Scanlan tell her all about Vex's progress on the piano while they sit in their little parlor in the evenings. Or listen to Vex tell her about the things she read, about her life in the town and work in Keyleth's shop before she came to them. All in all, Pike does a lot of listening - some of it between the lines.

Scanlan misses his daughter, but clearly sees some of her in Vex. He’s brightened up quite a bit since they started with the lessons and his smile is far more genuine nowadays.

Vex misses her brother horribly - she barely mentions him - but seems grateful for the chance to learn something new, not have to worry about setting the next meal on the table, even though the price she pays is far greater than anyone should ever ask for this. (She has filled out a little too, thanks to the regular meals and, apart from the paleness that comes from the missing sunlight and the influence of Orthax, looks much healthier than when Pike first met her.) And recently there is something new in her voice, something that wasn't there before, when she mentions Lord Percival. 

She hears it vividly when Vex and she sit in the kitchen after Keyleth left and speak about the things they learned about the curse and what it might mean. “It’s vague,” Vex says, “but it’s a chance, which is more than any of you had before.”

“And you,” Pike reminds her gently.

“And me,” Vex agrees, but waves her hand in the air as if to dismiss the thought. “But all three of you have been trapped for so long, much longer than me. And if the ‘seed’ is referring to Orthax, gods, I would love to help Per - er, Lord Percival be rid of Orthax once and for all.”

The slip is quick, gone in an instant, but it makes Pike raise an eyebrow as she rises to refill their cups. She’s grateful that Vex and Lord Percival have become friends, that Vex has seen past the understandable terror of her arrival, but to be on a first-name basis indicates a level of closeness that not even she was expecting. And when Pike pours more tea into Vex’s cup, the woman’s face is slightly flushed, for reasons Pike dares not speculate, not right now, anyway.

Vex and Lord Percival are spending more and more time together, at any rate. He’s opened up his wing of the house, allowing her free access to his workshop, which even Pike and Scanlan have been mostly barred from. Pike has walked past more than once to see Vex examining something on the workbench while Lord Percival hovers behind her. When Pike asks Vex about it at dinner one night, Vex just smiles. “He creates such lovely things. I think it’s a wonder, how he uses some of the power he has to bring just a little bit of beauty into this life.” 

She doesn’t quite dare to ask Lord Percival for his side to this story. Not after he comes into the kitchen one morning, and makes no sense to Pike whatsoever. “Pike, I was wondering if we still had any of my old …”

“Yes?”

“Oh no, never mind. That wouldn’t work anyway without… no, forget I asked,” he says and leaves again, making Pike wonder what in Sarenrae’s name just happened. But only for a short moment, before she puts it out of her mind again - no use in trying to come up with an explanation to something she will never get the real reason for. 

Instead she does her best to figure out the meaning behind the bear’s words. Now when she cleans in the library or Lord Percival’s study she pays more attention to the books and documents there. If her master found the way to summon the demon in one of the written accounts then she - so Pike deduces - can find a way to get rid of it in a similar fashion, or at least find a hint how to proceed. Or at least to try. While she dusts off the books and muses, a long forgotten memory returns to her at the sight of a row of bound diaries. A conversation she had, a century ago now. (It’s a wonder that she can still remember these things after such a long time has passed, but the human memory is a marvelous thing.) She hurries to finish with the study and then makes her way to a room that has been locked for more years than she can remember, but she is sure that the proper key is still on her keyring. To her relief, it is. 

For several moments Pike stands in the open door, taking in the thick layer of dust on every surface of the bedroom of a young girl. She sighs, then takes heart and sets to work. Somewhere in here could be the answer.  

It’s a little painful, in a distant sort of way, to see Cassandra’s room again. The youngest de Rolo hadn’t been given enough time to grow into the woman Pike knows she could have been. Especially after - well, after the Briarwoods, and Orthax, when the girl spent all of her time locked in this room, pouring over books, looking for a way to free her brother. And, the last time Pike spoke to her, Cassandra thought she’d found something, had an idea about what to do. But then … the villagers. The barrier. And Cassandra disappeared without a trace. Pike gave no further thought to the girl’s words after that - there had been too much else to deal with.

Now … 

There’s a loose floorboard in the corner of the room, behind the bed. Pike would have thought nothing of it, might not have even noticed it if she were simply cleaning in here. But when you’re hunting for secrets, every oddity is a potential solution. So Pike kneels on the floor and slowly lifts the floorboard - at first, it’s stuck, but the wood is old enough that once it begins to move, it comes off in her hands all at once. Beneath, Pike sees a small leather-bound book; inside the front cover, she finds a name written in girlish script.  _ Cassandra de Rolo. _

  
Pike smiles, holding the book close to her chest, and hopes.


	13. Gaining Ground

Over the course of the next few days Vex thinks a lot about the bear’s cryptic words. Her thoughts wander from speculations regarding how to get rid of Orthax to that last sentence Keyleth translated for her.  _ He is not the monster.  _ She doesn’t get anywhere with the first part, and the second part leaves her with the wish to hug Percy again. Which leads to the memory of their last hug and to a very predictable blush. Vex makes a point of  _ not  _ thinking about that when she is talking to Pike or Scanlan.

Her conversations with them circle around what little they can remember of the time after the de Rolo family was murdered, and what they had learned of the pact that Percival had made with Orthax. The lack of memory or knowledge is almost disheartening, but Pike promises to keep an eye out for any hints she might come across while keeping the castle tidy, and Scanlan vows the same. This leaves Vex with the difficult task of talking to Percy and not flat out asking him about his bond with the demon.

Their first conversation is still slightly awkward and stilted, and Vex ends up reading aloud for most of their time together that day. But he doesn’t seem inclined to move the chairs, so they sit in the previously comfortable proximity to each other, and by the end of the day Vex’s nerves have settled. And so have Percy’s, judging by the tone of his voice when he wishes her a good night. 

The next day, before she opens the book, she turns to Percy. “Can I ask you a personal question?”

“Of course,” he says, though he sounds a bit guarded.

“How old were you when … when everything happened?”

He’s silent for a long moment. “Nineteen years old. I think. It’s been so long, some of it’s a blur.”

“So young.” Vex takes a chance and reaches into the smoke to lay her hand on his. He freezes for a split second, then relaxes. “I know - well, some of the stories, I guess, but I have no idea if any are actually true. Would you be willing to tell me about it?”

This time, the silence stretches so long that Vex is afraid she’s made a mistake. But then, his hand turns underneath hers to lace their fingers together. “Like I said,” he begins, a barely noticeable tremor in his voice, “it’s rather a blur these days. And some of it, honestly … I don’t know what was real and what the fever dreams invented. But it started with the Briarwoods.”

He tells her a story about visitors to the castle - husband and wife, travelers from a far away land, come to Whitestone in search of local tales. “The mountain stone,” Percy says, “they told us they’d heard stories about magical properties it held. They played it off as a quaint fairy tale, but the woman - Delilah - said she was a collector of such stories, so when they were traveling close, they just had to come see the source.” He laughs bitterly. “My parents welcomed them into our home. There was no reason to think they were anything but what they seemed. They dressed well, they had all the manners of nobility, they said the right words and mentioned the right people. Nothing seemed amiss.”

“But …” Vex prompts.

“But the third night of their visit, after a banquet we threw in their honor, they … it was a bloodbath.” Percy’s voice is quiet, so quiet that Vex has to lean closer to make sure she gets all the words. “They started with my parents, they slaughtered them in their bed. Julius was next. Vesper survived long enough to try to gather the rest of us, but they caught us almost immediately.” He’s clutching her hand hard enough that she imagines she’ll have impressions of his fingers on her skin. “They had magic. We didn’t stand a chance.”

Vex is silent as he takes a deep breath, afraid that another prompt now would stop the story. “I saw my little brothers fall to a blast of green fire and lost sight of my sister, Cassandra, when we were thrown by the force of it. She must have taken a wrong turn when she got back up. She never made it outside of the castle. I’m not sure how  _ I  _ did it.” 

Percy falls quiet for another moment, and when he resumes his story, his voice takes on an almost frustrated quality. “I made it out alive, but there was nothing I could do to avenge my family, to drive out their murderers that took residence in my home. I was too weak, useless.” He barks out that last word, anger now coloring his voice. It seems to help him continue, and gradually he grows quieter again. “I looked everywhere for a weapon or a way to defeat them, and after two years, I found a vague story about a demon willing to make bargains - which is when I found Orthax. It promised me the power to take my revenge, and it upheld its side of the bargain. When I returned, they didn’t stand a chance.”

“You did it, then, you avenged your family,” Vex says gently. She can’t image what it must have felt like, to lose one’s entire family in one night, then mete out a kind of justice after two long years. And then spend a century with the consequences of it all. 

“Yes,” Percy speaks so quietly that she almost doesn’t hear it, “but I don’t think it was worth it, in the end. It didn’t help or make me feel better. I freed a demon from its rightful place in hell and took more lives than they did. I am no better.”

“That’s not true.” Vex squeezes his hand when he seems ready to release his grip on hers again. “You made a mistake, but I see you trying to do right, to own up to it and make the best of this horrid situation. I see you.”   

He makes a noise, as if he wants to argue, but he cuts himself off before he says anything. Instead, he curls his fingers around hers again and holds tight. Vex leans forward, into the darkness, until she feels his skin near hers. She takes a breath, and presses a kiss to his shoulder, the nearest part she can reach. He inhales sharply; then, Vex feels him shift, and suddenly she feels lips press against her hair. The sensation makes her shiver a bit. “I’m glad you’re here,” Percy murmurs. “I’m sorry you have to be here, but I’m also selfish enough to be glad you’re here.”

“It’s not selfish to want … someone.” Another shiver runs through Vex, as she sits up straighter, kneeling a bit on her chair. She doesn’t leave the shadow, but brings herself up to what feels like eye level with him. “Percy,” she says softly, bringing her hand up to find his face. She feels along his cheek until her fingers brush against his mouth, then uses them to guide her forward, until her lips brush against his.

It’s a brief touch, not much more than a whisper of sensation, but when she pulls back just a bit, he follows her, pressing their lips together more firmly. Vex feels an invisible current dance along her skin at the contact. And this time, when he seems to draw back, she’s the one who chases him, sliding her hand to the back of his neck to hold him close as she tilts her head and kisses him.

His lips are warm and yielding, moving softly against hers as he kisses her back. Vex feels this warmth seeping into her, filling her chest with something lighter than air, and her only tethers to reality become the sensations on her skin. Strands of his hair between her fingers, his hand laced with hers, his lips parting on a slow exhale when they do pull apart. Vex gives him space this time but stays in the protective cover of the shadow. She doesn’t feel ready to leave that small bubble of affection just yet.

“Vex,” she hears him murmur, before taking another deep breath. “Thank you. I always wanted to know what it feels like to be kissed.”

She is glad he can’t see her face right now; she is sure surprise and grief are waging war across her face. The reality of all that he had lost in quick succession hits her hard. She wants to pull him to her and hold him close, but it would likely just feel like pity to him right now, with the imbalance of that confession between them. That’s not something he needs. “Thank you too. Now we share three kisses between the two of us,” Vex replies quietly. 

“Oh,” he says in a soft voice, and then, “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. I think that was quite a good kiss, speaking from my admittedly rather limited experience.”

That makes him laugh, and Vex finds in it the strength to slide her hand out of his hair and settle back into the light and her chair. She hears him sigh, a soft, disappointed sound, and squeezes his hand in response. “The only other person I’ve kissed,” she says, curling up in her chair, “was one of the Ashari boys. Keyleth’s cousin, he worked with us at the shop from time to time. He was nice, a little shy, and one day when I was at the farm, we ended up in the hayloft. I think it more because we were curious than any real desire. We kissed, and we … well, we did a lot more than kiss that day.” She blushes a bit at the memory.

“What - what was it like?” 

“It was …” She sighs, and one side of her mouth quirks upward. “It wasn’t quite what I’d hoped it would be. I liked - that is, I liked the touching. But there wasn’t enough of it. It was over very quickly.” 

There is a long, awkward silence. Vex’s skin feels too tight, too warm; she remembers that boy’s hands, sliding along her skin, feeling so nice but leaving too soon. She remembers nights alone in bed, letting her own hands run over her skin, down to the warm, secret area between her legs, and how good it feels when she presses in just the right places. And she imagines, just for a moment, what Percy’s hands might feel like on her skin. The fingers wrapped around hers are slightly calloused, long and agile and strong. She thinks - well, maybe - it might be nice -

“I wish …” Percy murmurs.

“What?”

“Nothing,” he says quickly. “No, nothing.”

It doesn’t sound like nothing, but Vex has learned not to push immediately. He reveals more about himself he comes to her in his own time. “Alright. Should we continue with the book then?”

“Yes, please.” He sounds relieved and Vex opens the book to the last page they stopped on the day before and starts reading. 

The next days go by quietly. She speaks to Pike about what little she had learned about Orthax and the other woman tells her about a book she found that might shed some more light on the situation. When Vex offers her help with going through it, Pike shakes her head. “Leave that to me,” she says softly, “let me do something to help.” Vex doesn’t argue.

When she meets Percy in the afternoons, they don’t speak about the kiss or the conversation they had afterwards. But he takes her hand as she sits down next to him and they seem to settle into a slightly changed familiarity with each other. It’s comforting and sweet, and makes Vex forget that another month has nearly passed.

She is not allowed to forget for long.

She is sitting with Scanlan at the piano after dinner and playing a four handed piece. Pike had squirreled away earlier to continue to read in the book she found, so when the door to the music room opens, she is the one Vex expects to see. Instead the doorway is filled with black smoke, stray tendrils creeping into the room towards her. The eyes glow with malevolent energy, and Vex doesn’t need to hear it speak to know that Orthax has woken up. 

“It’s time, Vex’ahlia.” The demon’s voice grates at her ears, and she watches its dark mass spill into the room towards her. She gets up quickly from the bench and steps between it and Scanlan.

“I’m ready, feed,” she says and squares her shoulders. She just wants it to be over as soon as possible.

“No,” it says and Vex feels as if someone has pulled a rug from under her feet. 

“What do you mean, no? I’m here to feed you. You only come out to feed. So feed.” Her tone implies bravado she doesn’t feel, not really, not while she stares into the glowing eyes that tell her Percy has no control here.

“I’m bored,” says the dissonant voice. “I want you to entertain me first.” The smoke drifts closer, close enough to swirl around her skin, but not enough to envelop her in the now-familiar darkness. The next word is no more than a hiss. “Run.”

“What?”

“Run. Run for your life. Perhaps, if you amuse me enough, I’ll let you leave here.”

Vex’s mind is a jumble of confusion. But after a moment, she shakes her head, meeting the glowing gaze steadily. “No.” She doesn’t know what game the creature is playing, but she won’t indulge it.

The smoke continues to swirl around her; it slides across her skin, lifts locks of her hair, disturbs her skirts. “You’ve gotten bold, girl,” it says. “You think you’re smart. You think I don’t know what you’re doing. What you’re trying to do. You forget yourself.” And then, with a speed she hadn’t known it possessed, a smoke tendril reaches around her; with a snapping motion, it drags Scanlan off the bench and to its side, smoke wrapping around his neck. With growing horror, Vex watches as Scanlan’s face turns bright red, then purple from lack of air. “The curse that traps me here keeps him alive,” the voice says, “but under what circumstances? How long will he live without breath, I wonder?” The smoke tightens, and Scanlan’s eyes bulge. “ _ Run. _ ”

Vex runs.

She dashes from the music room, turns down the hall, runs past the staircase and into Pike and Scanlan’s private quarters. She doesn’t see Pike, but she yells as she passes through. “Pike!! Hide! Orthax is coming!!” Hopefully the woman can hear her, and will find a safe place, but Vex can’t spare the time to find out. Somewhere behind her, she hears a slamming noise. She hopes the sound means that the beast has released Scanlan in order to chase her. “Please,” she whispers.

Her feet carry her down corridors and around corners, down a staircase and up another one. After warning Pike, Vex doesn’t pay any mind where she is running to, just making sure that there is enough distance between her and Orthax. She stops to gulp in air into her burning lungs somewhere close to the kitchen, then continues in a slower pace to save energy until it suddenly appears at the end of the corridor in front of her, coming as if out of nowhere. A hissing, malicious laugh follows her as she spins around and runs back the same direction she came from. 

That display of power shows her again what it is capable of - to the monster, she’s just prey. Fear nestles in Vex’s chest as she careens around a corner and sees it appear in front of her. She stumbles and almost falls when she skitters to a halt and turns around again. Its laughter is painful in her ears, the mockery and exertion driving her to tears.

Orthax comes for her when she stops dead in front of a wall - a dead end and nowhere left to turn. Her muscles burn with lack of air and she struggles to breathe. That’s when it strikes. “You would do well to remember this time, little mouse,” she hears it hiss, and then for endless agonizing minutes all she knows is pain searing through her body. 

This time, Vex screams.

When consciousness comes to her, albeit only briefly, she is lying in her bed. A cool, damp cloth is dabbed to her forehead and she can hear the quiet hum of a melody. It lulls her back to sleep.

Vex wakes to the sound of Pike and Scanlan quietly (but good-naturedly) arguing at the foot of her bed. “All I’m saying is,” Scanlan says, “the apple pie would be a lot more delicious.”

“And take twice as long to make,” Pike replies. “Unless you’ve learned how to bake somewhere in the last century while I wasn’t looking. In which case, feel free to make whatever pies you want.”

“Pike, my light, my joy, what can I possibly offer you to get some apple pie? A song, perhaps?”

“I’ll take a song,” Vex says, her voice hoarse. “And pie sounds good, I’m starving.”

They both turn to her, relieved smiles crossing their faces. “Now  _ that  _ will get me to make a pie,” Pike says. “How are you feeling?”

“Ugh. My head hurts.” Her body is weak, but other than the headache, her mind feels sharp. She accepts a glass of water from Scanlan gratefully. “Is he around?” she asks softly.

“He’s been shut up in his rooms for the past few days,” Scanlan admits. “I tried to tell him it wasn’t his fault, but I think you might have more luck.”

“Don’t get up,” Pike warns, when Vex pushes herself up to sitting. “You stay there, I’ll get you some food, and I’ll chase Lord Percival down here too if that’s what you want.”

“Yes. If you wouldn’t mind.” 

“Not at all. It’s about time he stops moping.” With that, Pike exits the room.

Scanlan takes a seat in the chair next to Vex’s bed. “It’s not your fault either, you know that, right?”

Vex sighs. “Yes. You’re okay?”

“I’m fine. It let me go the moment you ran out of the room.” He narrows his eyes at her. “Are you?”

“Am I what? Okay?” She shrugs. “I’m as alright as I can be, given the circumstances. I do feel a little dumb. I forgot - I forgot for a little while. That the monster is always there, that it listens.”

“Would you do anything differently, from the last month or so?”

Vex considers for a moment. “No.”

“Then don’t worry about it. As far as I’m concerned, this is all a good sign.”

“How so?”

“It’s scared,” Scanlan says bluntly. “I haven’t seen it scared like that since the curse first confined it to the house. You’re doing something right, Vex.”

“I hope so. I really do.”

He reaches out and gently pats her knee, summoning a smile to her face with that sign of affection. Then Scanlan stands and bows with a flourish. “I’ll go help Pike with your lunch,” he excuses himself and walks out the door, leaving Vex with a few moments of privacy.

She reaches over to the night table and picks up the flower bud. Vex winds it up and watches the figurine dance as she listens to the music and tries to sort her thoughts. She really hopes that Scanlan is right and Orthax is scared, that she is making progress towards an unknown goal.

Pike returns with a meal and helps Vex into the bathtub after she has eaten. The hot water is balm to her muscles and soon even her headache dissipates. She has dressed and settled with a book into the window seat when there is finally a knock on her door.

“Come in.”

The door opens to reveal the smoky form of Percy who hesitates for a moment in the doorframe before coming in. “Pike told me you were up and feeling better.”

“Yes,” she says and manages a soft smile. “I’m glad you’ve come out of hiding.”

“I was not hiding,” he replies with an indignant huff and glides further into the room, coming to stand near her chair. 

“Moping? Wallowing?” She teases him and then gestures for him to take the chair and sit with her. “Whatever it is you do when things slip out of your control. I’m glad that I don’t have to miss you for half a week.”  

He takes the seat, silent for a moment. “I’m sorry.”

“For what?”

“For …” The smoke gestures in the air. “That display.”

“Did you cause it? Because it’s my impression that you were a bystander, just as trapped as Scanlan or I.”

“I -” He sighs. “I was. But still, you continue to get hurt because of my mistake.”

“Stop that. I refuse to let you wallow. You are not Orthax. He simply shares space with you.” Vex reaches out to grab his hand. “We’re all still here. And we have another month to figure things out.”

“And in that,” Percy says, his tone shifting to one of curiosity, “I think my guest somehow knows more about what’s been happening in my house than I do. What have you been up to, when I’m not around?”

Now Vex hesitates. “I think … I would prefer to keep you out of it. Because the less you know, the less your guest knows.”

He grumbles, but the smoke forms something that resembles a nod. “Fair enough. Just be careful, Vex. I honestly don’t know how conscious he is when I’m in control, or how he senses things. And he’s proven that he’ll retaliate quite cruelly.” 

“I know. I’ll be as careful as I can.” It’s the most she’ll promise. This round of terror has reminded her of the silent ticking clock counting down to the end of her life. She’s been here three months. She was only promised half a year. If they don’t find a way to end the curse and banish Orthax soon … well, she doesn’t want to think about it. Not yet.

She must shiver, because Percy’s hand tightens around hers. “Are you alright? Do you need anything?”

Vex opens her mouth to issue the automatic denial, but then she stops. She has such a short amount of time left, potentially. There are many things she needs in the meantime, but she’ll have none of them if she doesn’t ask. “Percy? Can I ask for a favor?”

“Of course. Anything.”

“Will you hold me?” Her voice is smaller than she intends. Now that she’s thought of it, there’s nothing she wants more than to feel his arms around her, to lose herself in the darkness and the warmth of his skin.

There’s less of a pause than she expects. “Yes,” Percy murmurs. He rises from the chair, and she shifts on the window seat to make room for him behind her. A moment later, she finds herself enveloped in smoke, as his arms wrap around her torso and pull her flush against his chest. It seems he’s sitting at an awkward angle (likely to avoid awkward contact below his waist), but Vex takes the opportunity to turn in his arms and wraps hers around him. She presses her cheek to his chest and exhales slowly.

After a moment Vex feels a light weight on top of her head when Percy rests his cheek there and his breath stirs her hair. They stay like this for a while, silently wrapped up in each other, and Vex forgets for that time that there is anything else outside their little bubble of warmth.   

“Vex? Can I ask for something as well?” Percy’s voice is quiet and a bit muffled by her hair.

“Yes, of course. It’s only fair,” she replies. 

“Would you kiss me?” This time he is so quiet she nearly doesn’t understand what he is saying.

Vex smiles. “Yes,” she murmurs and tilts her head upwards. Her lips find his jaw and use it as a guidance until they meet his. Their second kiss is sweet and slow with Percy being much more sure of himself when his lips move against hers. There is a moment where his lips part on a sigh and Vex tries something - the tip of her tongue runs over the corner of his mouth and for a second finds his. 

“Ah.” Percy makes a surprised sound and pulls back. 

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to…,” Vex stammers.

“No, don’t be. You just surprised me. I didn’t know you could…,” he says, his voice drifting off at the end of the sentence and if Vex were to guess she’d think he was blushing now. 

“Would you like to try again?” She asks softly and hopes he isn’t too spooked. 

In answer, he closes the small distance between them and kisses her again; it feels more urgent this time, more eager, and when she feels his tongue hesitantly brush her bottom lip, she opens her mouth in welcome. The hot slide of tongue against tongue is a sensation that courses through her body, finally pooling between her legs with a throbbing heat. She shifts herself, tugging at him until they’re both stretched on their sides, facing each other. Their tongues explore each other’s mouth in wet, sloppy, open-mouthed kisses that make Vex ache for something  _ more _ , more of him, more connection … just more. 

She presses closer to him, desperate for his warmth. When her lower body meets his, she feels something hot and hard press into her skirts, and he gasps into her mouth. “Percy,” she murmurs soothingly, letting her tongue trace along his bottom lip. “Is this alright? I like the feel of you against me.”

“I - yes,” he says. She feels one of his hands reach around to splay over her back. “Vex … nothing has ever felt as good as you do.”

That makes her smile. “Likewise, darling,” she whispers. With that, she lets her lips wander, finding the light stubble of his chin, then the curve of his throat. In this moment, she rather wishes she could be rid of her own clothing; his skin is wonderfully hot, and she can only imagine what it would feel like to press skin to skin, to let his flesh envelop her the same way his smoke does. He makes soft, needy noises as she kisses her way down his throat, and the heat she feels nestled against her belly twitches when she sucks gently on a patch of skin. The feeling makes the throbbing between her legs ten times worse. “Percy,” she sighs, letting her face simply press into his neck for a moment, holding him close.

When she brings her head up again, she lets her hands skim up until they’re touching his face. A fingertip traces around his wet lips; she feels his tongue dart out to tentatively touch her finger. She lets him lick her, then give her own small gasp when he draws the finger into his mouth and sucks gently. “Oh,” she murmurs, feeling the suction in far hotter, more secret places on her body. “Oh, that’s … lovely.”

Percy releases her finger and gives a shuddering sigh. “Vex. Vex … I want - I feel so much.”

“I know. I do too.” 

“I’m glad. That is… is it alright for me to want? It feels like I’m asking already so much of you.”

“You’d be asking for something I am already willing to give. It’s alright, Percy.” Vex manages to place the hand he released against his cheek. “Are you scared?” She asks gently.

He is silent for a moment, long enough that Vex thinks he might not answer. “Yes,” he says on a slow exhale, “a bit.”

“That’s okay. I’m a little nervous, too. But that doesn’t mean I don’t want to try.” 

“Thank you. For saying that. And listening.” His voice is gentle now and much more steady.

“Of course,” she says and then adds quickly, “and you can take some time and think about it first. You don’t have to do anything right now. There is no rush.”

“I would like that,” he replies and Vex can hear the smile in his voice. “And you should be resting, or Pike will be very cross with both of us.”

She laughs at that and that makes it much easier to let go of him when he sits up and slides off the window seat. And it’s a good thing she maneuvers herself back into a proper sitting position, because there is a knock on her door and after a moment Pike pokes her head inside the room. “There will be apple pie soon. That is, if Scanlan doesn’t eat it all by himself should you stay up here.”

To Vex’s surprise, Percy’s form rises from the chair and holds out a smoke tendril arm. “We can’t have that,” he says, amusement clear in his voice. “Shall we?”

Vex feels a smile spread across her face as she accepts his arm. They pass by Pike - whose eyebrows shoot up into her hairline at the sight of Percy escorting her thus - and follow the scent of baking apples down toward the kitchen.


	14. Interlude - Taking the Leap

Percy paces his workshop. His tools are in chaos on the bench - he’s been trying to come up with another gift for Vex, something worthy of her, but his mind won’t focus on the task at hand. His head is filled with images of the afternoon; the feel of her in his arms, the taste of her lips, the sound of her voice … he imagines he can still smell her in the smoke swirling around him. His body -  _ his  _ body, not the smoke form the demon granted him all those years ago - hasn’t stopped reacting to her, even hours after he left her company. He wants - gods above, he just  _ wants _ , more than he has any right to want from her.

But then again, she was warm and pliant in his arms, and told him she enjoyed his company. And his kisses. And that she might be interested in something even more from him. From  _ him,  _ the man who took her freedom, and might still take her life if he cannot come up with another solution.

(He will come up with another solution. He must. He will let Orthax devour him from the inside before he hurts Vex again.)

She humbles him. She amazes him. She is everything he’s never let himself dream about. And if she does truly want him, then he will do everything in his power to make her happy. He just has to make himself take that first step, out of his workshop and down to her bedroom.

It takes him another hour to talk himself into doing so.

When he arrives at her door, he knocks cautiously. A few moments later, she answers, clad in a nightgown that only reaches her knees, her long hair loose over her shoulders. Percy has never seen anything more beautiful in all his life. “May I … may I come in?” he asks softly.

With a smile Vex steps aside from the door and lets him in. “Yes, come inside.” She closes the door after him and then walks over to her bed to sit down on the mattress, feet tucked under her like she usually sits when they read together. He hovers close by the door until she waves him over to sit next to her. “You thought about it then,” she says, in such a gentle voice that he finds he is nodding even though she can’t possibly see.

“I did,” he agrees quietly, “though I must confess, I’m still rather nervous.” 

“So am I. We’ll just take it slow, and if anything makes either of us uncomfortable, we can stop.” There is a soft blush dusting her cheeks as she speaks, but her voice is steady and reassuring enough that when he lets himself reach out for her hand, his fingers are barely shaking. Her fingers squeeze his and he lifts her hand up to his lips, pressing a soft kiss to her knuckles. The smile she gives him is so lovely that his heart stutters, skips a beat and then resumes thudding wildly in his chest. 

“Is it okay for me to kiss you?” he asks, as his yearning her taste and touch rises once again.

“Yes, please,” Vex replies and leans in towards him, vanishing out of his sight as she slips into his smoke. Percy closes his eyes when he feels her searching fingers on his shoulder, neck, and then his jaw as she guides herself to his lips. The feel of her touch is nothing he thinks he could ever get used to; every sensation leaves an imprint on what little is left of his soul. He waits patiently, even though he wants nothing more than to pull her to him faster, and is soon rewarded with the gentle and warm press of her lips on his. 

The kiss does not remain chaste for long. Vex wraps her arms around his neck and parts her lips for him, and the touch of her tongue to his awakens an even more primal need inside of him. All of his senses are consumed by the taste of her, so much so that he’s only vaguely aware when she starts pulling him down on top of her. But soon, they’re stretched across the bed, and her body is pressed flush against his. When they part for breath, Percy feels her hands wander from his neck, down to the middle of his back. “Can I touch you?” she whispers. “I want to touch as much of you as you’ll let me.”

Percy feels his body respond to the request; she obviously feels it too, because her hips roll gently up into his, and the sensation is like nothing he’s ever felt before. “Gods above,” he murmurs. “Yes, Vex. Touch me, please.”

He feels her fingertips trace lightly down his back, until they meet his buttocks. And then she flattens her palms against him and cups him there, letting her fingers knead his flesh very gently. And  _ oh,  _ that makes the throbbing of his cock even worse. “Your skin is so warm,” she says, kissing his jaw. “I love the way it feels under my hands.”

“Your hands …” he echoes quietly. “It feels so good, Vex. So good.”

She lets her hands wander again, skimming his thighs, then back up to his hips and waist. Her lips find his again, and they lose themselves in a slow kiss. Percy feels like he’s drowning in her - in this moment, she feels more powerful than the creature that consumes him, like she has the power to overwhelm the demon and take him over herself. Perhaps that’s what she’s doing - perhaps she’s stealing his soul as surely as Orthax did. If that’s the case, he’ll give it willingly, if only she’ll stay here and make him feel this way forever.

As they kiss Percy feels one of her hands find one of his and slowly guide it down to rest on her thigh, just below the hem of her slipped nightgown. Her skin is warm and soft under his slightly trembling fingers, and it takes the gentle pressure of her hand on his until he lets it rest there.

“It’s okay. Let me show you,” Vex reassures him in her soft, soothing voice and slides their entwined hands further up her thigh, pulling her gown up as they go. Percy’s breath catches as his fingers slide along her skin without meeting any impediments, coming to a stop on her hip. 

“Do you want me to keep going?” he asks, his own voice unfamiliar to him as it drops lower than he’s ever heard it. Then again, everything about this experience is unfamiliar territory to him; his mind is busy trying to catalogue each sensation.

He feels another soft kiss on his jaw; her lips trail up to find his, and she whispers “Yes, please,” against them. Her hand leaves his to explore on its own, and soon comes to rest on the nape of his neck where it tangles in his hair. 

Now that he has explicit permission, Percy explores further. He discovers the smooth plane of her abdomen and that Vex is a little ticklish there when she giggles at his touch. Her stomach is soft and so is the skin on her sides as his hand glides up her body.  And then his thumbs meet the soft curves at the sides of her breasts; tentatively, he allows his palms to skim upward, over the rise, until he feels her taut nipples under his touch. She draws in a sharp breath, and when he runs his fingertips around them, she makes the loveliest sound he’s possibly ever heard. “Yes, Percy,” she whispers. “Touch me.”

So he does. He explores every inch of her breasts, kneading the flesh, rolling the nipples between his fingers until she’s making tiny, needy sounds that shoot straight down between his legs. His hips thrust forward until they’re joined there again and … oh.  _ Oh.  _ Now there’s no fabric between them, and all he feels is her heat, soft and wet, and pleasure surges in him at the sensation. He sucks in a sharp breath, struggling with his overwhelming need. It’s too soon for this to be over - he wants it to last forever, he wants to please her, he wants … oh, fuck, he really just  _ wants _ .

And then Vex rubs herself against him, and all thoughts empty from his brain. “Percy,” she murmurs, reaching up to kiss his face. “I want you inside of me. Please?”

“Vex … if I … I’m going to …”

“I know.” She kisses him again, on his cheek, on his jaw, at the corner of his mouth. “I just want to feel you. It’s okay.”

It’s not okay. Somewhere in his lust-addled mind, he remembers her telling him that her previous experience wasn’t very good. He wanted to be better for her. He wanted … “I want to please you,” he says, the last word ending on an undignified whine when she rolls her hips against him again.

“You are.” She reaches down between them; her fingers circle him, and Percy loses the ability to breathe. “You are pleasing me. I promise.”

“Okay.” The word leaves his lips on the last bit of air in his lungs, before his body remembers how to breathe again. Then she gently guides him to her entrance and inside, and he forgets it all over again. 

Heat envelops him as he sinks inside her and he can’t stop his full-body shudder or the moan that escapes his lips. But Vex moans too and this confirmation - this feels good to her - makes it feel so much better for him. Her arms wrap around his neck as she rolls her hips up to meet his. The friction wrings more guttural sounds from his throat. His hips move almost of their own volition as he tries to match her pace and movement, his thrusts coming at a slightly awkward tempo - but still, the hot slide of their bodies against each other makes him tremble. His need for more friction, for release builds inside him quickly. 

“Yes, just like this,” he hears Vex breathe against his ear, the warm satisfaction in her voice breaking through the haze in his mind.

“Vex...I can’t...I’m about to…” His movements become more erratic as he loses control. His pleasure overtakes him; he spills into her with a loud cry, his entire body feeling like pure energy, pure flame. Vex is soft and warm around him, with her legs wrapping around his waist and her voice whispering lovely encouraging things in his ear. He’s never - he’s never felt anything like this. Nothing has ever felt this good, certainly not since this curse came upon him. In this moment, he knows that nothing in the world could ever feel as wonderful as Vex does right now.

When he’s spent, Percy slumps down on top of her, resting most of his weight on his elbows. She’s so soft, so warm beneath him, with her limbs still wrapped around him. It takes him a moment - too long - to fight past the haze and think of her again. “Vex. You … you didn’t …”

“No,” she admits, her mouth still near enough to his ear that he shivers at her breath. “But that’s okay, it was still a thousand times better than my last time. I promise.”

That’s not good enough. He wants her to feel this good - he wants her to feel like he does right now, like her world has tilted on its axis. He rubs his cheek against her, follows the sensation of her skin until he finds her lips again, and kisses her softly. “What should I do?” he asks. “I want to make you feel good. Can I touch you?”

Vex chuckles. “Yes, darling.” The endearment feels warm in his belly. He can feel her shift underneath him, slipping out from under his body but then staying pressed to his side. She kisses him softly, takes his hand in hers and guides it between her legs. “Touch me here,” she says. 

Percy’s fingers slide along hot, wet folds and he trembles slightly as he hears her soft moan when they settle and rub circles on a nub at the apex of her sex. For the first moments Vex’s fingers stay on his and show him where she likes to be touched, but soon enough she lets go and slings her hand around him to hold on tightly as he continues to work his fingers. He curses their  circumstance - she is hidden by the darkness and he can’t see her face, but the small noises she makes and the way her body arches into his hand satisfy him like nothing else. Not even the most intricate project in his workshop has given him such a sense of accomplishment as the increasing tremble in her body does.

“ _ Oh _ .” The sound she makes as her hips jerk upwards and her body shakes in his arms is the sweetest thing he’s ever heard, and he feels giddy happiness wash through him. Then he puts both arms around her and pulls her tightly against his chest. “That was so good,” she whispers, her breath hot on his skin.

“Thank you,” he replies, so softly that he almost can’t hear himself. He is grateful for so many things he can’t put into words, but all of them boil down to one thing - her.

“Percy?” Her voice is low and filled with contentment; the sound seems to curl warmly around his name.

“Yes?”

“Will you stay with me tonight?” 

He pauses at the question, but honestly, he doesn’t want to let go of her anytime soon anyway. He places a kiss on her hair and tangles his legs with hers. “Of course,” he murmurs. She breathes a happy sigh as she snuggles closer against him. Her body is warm and soft, and it fills him with a soothing calmness and something that comes very close to peace.


	15. Revelations

Vex wakes to darkness. There’s a moment of confused panic, before she realizes there’s a warm body underneath her cheek and her memory of last night rushes back. She can feel fingers carding through her hair, and a steady heartbeat vibrates softly against her skin. “Percy,” she murmurs, as a small smile crosses her face. 

“You’re awake.” His voice is a rumble against her cheek. 

“Did you sleep?”

“I don’t sleep,” he admits.

“So you just … laid here?” She feels a bit bad that she asked him to stay with her. “I’m sorry, that was probably boring.”

“Trust me,” he says and she can hear the smile in his voice, “I can’t remember spending a more pleasant night in a hundred years.”

His sincerity makes her smile spread and she nuzzles at his chest before lifting her head to kiss his jaw. “I’m glad you decided to come and stay with me tonight. It was wonderful. All of it,” she says softly. The hands in her hair move to wrap around her shoulders and hold her tighter. 

Percy doesn’t speak at first, just holds her gently and presses his lips to her hair for a long moment before she can feel them form a smile against her skin. “I’m very glad. It was wonderful for me as well. Thank you.”  

They stay like that, wrapped in each other’s arms and simply enjoying the warmth of the moment for a long time, Vex doesn’t want it to end, but all too soon, her body reminds her loudly that she needs to eat. They both laugh quietly at the sound. “I suppose it is time for breakfast,” she says with a yawn, as she sits up to stretch. But as soon as she moves, she realizes her nightshirt is bunched up under her arms; after a moment’s consideration, she shrugs and just pulls it over her head, tossing it next to the bed. At the movement, she hears a sharp inhale from Percy. Oh yes - she’d been encased in shadow last night, this is likely the first time he’s seen her unclothed. It seems like a small thing, considering what they did last night, but somehow his gaze feels more intimate than his touch. “I guess we were in the dark last night,” she says, grinning despite her blush. “But it’s rather unfair that I can’t see you, too.”

“I wish you could,” he says softly. 

Vex reaches out and brushes her fingers along his chest and up his throat to cup his cheek with her hand. “It’s okay, I can still see you - it’s just a little different,” she replies in a soothing voice and rubs her thumb over his cheek. A moment later she feels his hand cover hers and Percy sits up next to her, enveloping most of her torso in shadows again. 

“You’re the first to really see  _ me _ ,” he murmurs and leans forward to place a gentle kiss on Vex’s cheek. “Thank you for looking.”

“Percy…,” she breathes, not knowing what to say, and feels his smile against the palm of her hand. 

“Pike will have breakfast ready for you by now. I should leave you to get dressed.” He doesn’t move away though, rests his head against hers for a moment instead. “Thank you,” he murmurs and breathes another kiss on her cheek before pulling back and sliding off the bed. Vex finds herself blushing and naked perching on the bed as she watches Percy cross the room towards the door. He turns around before leaving and freezes on the spot for a long enough moment that she knows he must be having trouble with finding words.

“I’ll come and find you later,” she says into the silence and gives him a reassuring smile. 

“Please do.” His voice is gentle and there is a hint of vulnerability to it that wasn’t there before. Then he is out the door and Vex is alone in her room.  

It doesn’t feel like he’s running from her; rather it seems as if he’s giving her the space to process the last night on her terms - and surely he needs to do the same. Vex is smiling to herself when she pushes to her feet and walks to the tub in the corner of her room to draw herself a bath.

She’s washing herself when Pike comes into her room. “Good morning,” she says, surprising herself with the amount of cheer in her voice.

“Indeed.” Pike comes behind the screen, her eyebrow raised. “I poked my head in earlier, but you were … still sleeping.”

“Oh.” Vex tries not to blush. “Yes.”

For a moment, Pike looks like she’s going to say something else, but in the end she just gives Vex a small, mysterious smile and goes back to arranging clothing in the room. “If you don’t have any plans after breakfast,” she says, “I have something I need to show you.”

Vex hums, curious. “Of course, I’m all yours.”

“Well, then, finish soon, or your breakfast will get cold.” Before she disappears out the door again, Pike comes around the screen again. “You seem … happy.”

Vex finds herself nodding without even thinking. “I am,” she murmurs.

“Good.” With that, Pike leaves again, and Vex is once again left with her own thoughts and a lingering soreness to remind her of the previous evening.

After breakfast, once the dishes are cleaned, Pike leads her back to their small dining table. She hands Vex a small book, one that seems to be filled with precise, loopy handwriting. “This diary belonged to Lord Percival’s sister, Cassandra. She kept it after her family died, while she was a prisoner here.”

“Wait, what?” Vex furrows her brow. “She was a prisoner? I thought everyone died, everyone but Percy.”

Pike shakes her head. “No, Cassandra lived. She was caught trying to escape with Lord Percival, and the Briarwoods kept her, for reasons I never did understand. It was a hard life. At the time, she believed she was the only survivor. None of us knew that Lord Percival had lived until he came back, demon in tow.”

Vex sinks down on the bench at the table, eyes wide at the implication in Pike’s words. If Cassandra survived the Briarwoods, then … “What happened to her?” 

“We don’t know,” Pike replies softly, and sits down next to Vex. “She disappeared the night everything happened, when the barrier around the castle came up and we were all effectively made immortal.”

Both of them stare in silence at the slim tome in Vex’s hands for a long minute. Vex remembers the painting of his family Percy had shown her upstairs, recalling the small child cradled in her sibling’s arms. Sadness fills her at the deeper knowledge of the little girl’s fate - and what it must mean to Percy. “Tell me more,” Vex says finally and opens the diary on a random page, looking down at the accurate girlish handwriting filling the paper and running a finger lightly over the script.    

_ I found my father’s pipe yesterday. It was discarded in a forgotten corner of the library. But of course, one of their thralls was watching me, and must have told Lord Briarwood I had it. He came to my room and demanded it from me. Told me it was “for my own good.” As if I’m stupid. He’s determined to erase the rest of my family from existence, even in memory _

_ I sat with Lady Briarwood all afternoon while she mixed potions. She told me to call her Delilah, and I did, but I refuse to be that familiar here in the privacy of my room. She’s not my mother, she’s not my family. I saw her point a finger at my brother and kill him without a touch. Now she wants me to use her given name. I’ll gladly do so on the day I watch her die. _

The words send a chill down Vex’s spine. “That poor girl,” she murmurs. “I can’t imagine.”

“The diary starts a few days after the Briarwoods took over,” Pike begins with a heavy voice. “She writes about the loss of her family, about being cooped up with their ghosts in this castle. Most of those early entries are...very hard to read.” Pike falls silent for a minute and her face shows an echo of the anguish anyone who experienced the Briarwoods must have felt in that time. Vex reaches over and takes Pike’s hand, squeezing it in comfort and the woman gives her a tired smile before continuing. “Then there are bits and pieces about the fact that the Briarwoods were creating tunnels in the mountains, digging for the whitestone, and wondering what they might want to use it for. The Briarwoods dug rather extensively, it seems, even I was not aware how far they went into the mountains. But all of that was abandoned when Lord Percival returned. Whatever their plans were for the stone they mined, they never came to fruition and are now lost to time.” Vex sees a small spark of satisfaction in Pike’s eyes when she speaks of vengeance and, though she didn’t personally experience any of the Briarwoods’ reign, Vex feels some of it, too. Percy’s revenge on the people who murdered his family was more than justified - yet it brought him only more grief in the end.

(Then again, Vex would never have met him otherwise. And despite everything else that’s happened, it’s been worth it for her. And that is very much a thought to explore at another time.)

“What happened to Cassandra when he returned?” she prompts Pike to continue, utterly engrossed in the tale. 

“Scanlan and I hid her from Orthax as best we could. The being who returned to the castle was not quite her brother and she was frightened at first - but then, she was determined to find a way to get her brother back from the demon’s clutches.”

“And did she? Find a way, that is?” 

Instead of answering, Pike flips the pages of the book to the last entry. Vex leans over and reads for herself.

_ I was able to sneak into the study while he was distracted yesterday, and found an old, mildewed tome on the desk. I think it’s the book that allowed Percival to summon the demon. I didn’t have a lot of time to study it, but the part I did read gave me some ideas. It talks a lot about hate, and about isolation, and how both are necessary to create a true bond with the creature. So I wonder if the path to chasing the creature away lies in the opposite?  _

_ I have been hiding away, out of fright. The thing that wanders these halls bears no resemblance to my brother, save a few words here and there. But I may need to confront that fear in order to save him, and the others in this castle. Do I have the courage to do so? I don’t know. If I’m honest, I still suffer from a lot of resentment toward Percival - he left me to rot here, and when he returned, he only gave me more terror to overcome. But he is still my brother, the only family I have left. I have to do something. _

The entry ends there, and the rest of the book is blank. “The date of that entry,” Pike says, “is the day before the curse. I know …” The smaller woman sighs. “I know she confronted Lord Percival. I wasn’t there. Scanlan and I were in our quarters when everything happened. I remember hearing the front door slam, and a bit later, feeling the strange, acid taste of magic flowing over the entire castle. Lord Percival wouldn’t say much about the confrontation. All I know is that Cassandra confronted him, then the villagers came for him, and Lord Percival enacted the curse to save anyone else from being slaughtered. And after that, Cassandra was gone.”

“Dear gods.” Vex closes the book slowly, her mind a jumble of thoughts. “Did he …”

“I don’t know,” Pike answers, when the question won’t form. “We never saw Cassandra, or the villagers again. We can only guess as to what happened out there that night.”

Vex is silent for a long moment. Eventually, thinking about Cassandra de Rolo’s fate feels like too much. “This entry,” she says, tapping a finger on the book, “talks about a book that she found in Percy’s study. Do you know if that book still exists?”

Pike shakes her head. “No. After the curse, Orthax took over and went on a rampage through the castle, and everything that was in that study got destroyed in the process. I had to clean it afterwards, there was nothing left but splinters and dust - furniture, books, curtains, everything was gone.”

“That’s disappointing. But this is a start,” Vex says, trying to force some cheer into her voice. “It’s certainly something to think about. Thank you for showing me this, Pike, and telling me about Cassandra,” she adds with a much more genuine smile. 

“Don’t worry about it, dear.” Pike pats her hand and then takes the diary gently out of Vex’s hands. “I better stow this away again, lest our master’s shadow see it.”

With a nod and another quiet thank you, Vex leaves the kitchen to find another place to think. For a little while, she simply wanders the halls, looking at everything and nothing. It’s hard to imagine how it must have felt like for Percy to find that his sister had survived the Briarwoods and then lose her again in the same night. Or even to know he was actually the one responsible for her death, after everything they’d been through. Vex can’t even begin to wrap her head around it; it hurts too much to think of this. It makes her heart hurt for both Percy and Cassandra; it makes her mourn her lost relationship with Vax. So she pushes these thoughts aside and concentrates on the information contained in that last entry instead. The opposite of hate and isolation, Cassandra wrote. Love and togetherness? It seems so trite. And if anyone could provide love, it would be a sibling, even if she was conflicted about her feelings. So if Cassandra tested any of her theories that night, she’d clearly failed. So perhaps she was wrong.

Vex sighs and runs a hand across her face in frustration. Company and affection may not be the key to get rid of Orthax, but it’s something she craves right now, after those revelations. And without a conscious decision, her feet carry her unerringly through the castle to Percy’s workshop. The familiar sounds of his tools behind the door makes Vex smile to herself, and she lifts her hand to knock.

“Come in.” His voice rings out clear from inside the room and her smile only widens as she opens the door and finds him working on a new project. As she comes closer, he straightens out and steps away from the workbench to give her his full attention. 

“What is this going to be?” Vex asks and comes to a stop at his side, stretching out her hand into the smoke to lay it on his arm. The familiar warmth of his skin against hers is immediately soothing. 

“A broom,” he replies. 

She detects humor in his voice; her eyebrows lift and she turns her head to look up at him. “We don’t have enough of those yet?”   

“Oh, but this is going to be a special broom,” he says. “That is, if it works properly.” 

“And how is that?”

“It’s going to fly.”

Vex’s eyes widen. “A flying broom? Like in stories?”

The smoke moves in a nod. “Remember that story we finished the other day? You gave me the idea then. You were so excited by the idea of being able to fly, and since I can do a bit of magic, I wondered if it was possible. And tests have been promising …” With that, he lays his hands on the thin wood frame in front of him for a moment. When he lifts them away again, the object begins to hover a few inches above the workbench. He steps back, as if to demonstrate he’s not holding it up in any way.

“Oh!” Vex claps in delight. “It really flies! Or floats, at least.”

“I have a lot more work to do. I want to build a seat onto it, so that if it does fly in such a way that a person could ride it, it would be relatively comfortable.” He turns toward her. “How would you like to fly? If I get it working, that is.”

“Me?”

“I’m - well, I’m really building it for you.”

Something clutches inside Vex’s chest, and she responds by launching herself into the inky darkness and pressing her lips against the first part of his face she finds - which turns out to be his jawline. “You’re wonderful, darling,” she whispers. Then she wraps her arms around him, letting herself sink into his warm skin. Whether she actually gets to fly or not isn’t the point here. He took a ridiculous wish she’d spoken aloud and actually put some thought into it. Because he wanted to make her smile. Gods, she feels -

She bites down on the thought that’s on the tip of her tongue. Instead, she lets her hands wander lower on his torso, enjoying the way his muscles twitch under her touch. “Will you come sit with me for a while?” she murmurs, pressing her lips to his shoulder. “I find myself craving more of your company.”

“Gladly,” he whispers into her hair and puts one arm around her shoulders before shepherding her out of the workshop and down the corridor to the library. With Percy’s smoke surrounding her she can’t see where he is leading her but the smell of the room is simply unmistakable. They end up settling down in a loveseat on the gallery of the library so Vex can curl up against Percy’s side, her head resting on his shoulder. It is silent between them for the longest time but not unpleasantly so. Vex relishes in the warmth his touch provides and thinks about what Pike had said to her that morning. That she seemed happy. 

As Percy’s hand brushes absently up and down her arm, she takes inventory of her feelings. She  _ is _ happy when he is around - talking or simply spending time in Percy’s company fills her with a pleasant tingle these days. Their relationship had changed and shifted slowly into something new, something Vex doesn’t want to do without. The only problem is that her days remain numbered. Orthax will devour her soul if she doesn’t find a way to break his hold on Percy, if they don’t figure out a way send the demon back to whatever place he came from. Her time is running out. 

Her thoughts turn to Cassandra and her diary again as she traces patterns on Percy’s chest. The girl seemed to have an idea on how to deal with the problem, but had she been on the right track? Vex wishes she could ask Percy what had happened that night when the barrier had come up and - and his sister disappeared. Yet the thought of reminding him of the loss and whatever role Orthax might have played in it turns her stomach. She also fears that she would tip her hand to the ever watching demon; whatever Percy hears, Orthax knows. There is nothing to gain and much to lose in that direction.

“A penny for your thoughts?” Percy asks her gently after a little while, pulling her closer to his chest.

Vex chuckles. “For you, it’s free of charge. I’ve been thinking about something Pike said to me this morning - that I look happy. And I realized that I am.”

“Oh. You are?” He sounds surprised, his voice barely a whisper.

“I am,” Vex replies with a soft smile and stretches to find his cheek with her lips. 

“That’s … unexpected, given the circumstances.” He turns his head, brushes his lips against hers. “You’re still in danger,” he murmurs. “I want to change that, but …”

“I know.” She lays her head back down on his shoulder. “I can’t think about that right now. I can’t do anything about it.” It’s half a lie, which she feels bad for, but she needs to keep those thoughts to herself right now. “I can only take each day as it comes. I’m happy to spend time with you. That’s enough for the moment.”

Vex smiles when she feels Percy’s hand boldly skim down her back to cup her buttocks, and she snuggles closer to him. “You’re a gift, Vex’ahlia,” he says. “I don’t deserve you, but I’m selfishly glad you’re here with me.”

She doesn’t think he’s selfish - he’s sacrificed his entire life for justice, and for the safety of the village below. But he won’t see it that way. Maybe someday, he’ll be able to see himself through her eyes. Maybe someday, he’ll be able to see himself, period. She’s determined to find a way, for both of their sakes. 


	16. Interlude - Smoke and Mirrors

Seeing Vax with hope is almost worse than seeing him without it, Keyleth thinks. 

While he was desperate and at times unbearable to be around for the first few months, now his energy has shifted to blind determination. She can’t make him regard that woman - Ripley - with the same nebulous dread she feels. If it were up to Keyleth, neither of them would have anything to do with her. But somehow this woman's plans, whatever they may be, have rekindled his hope for Vex's safe return. Keyleth has no desire to take his hope away. But every time she thinks of Anna Ripley, she feels a cold pit open in her stomach. It’s confusing, to say the least.  

Vax is still helping around the shop and at the farm - he is earning his keep. Yet every free minute he has, he spends somewhere else, and refuses to tell Keyleth where. Perhaps she shouldn’t have told him of her yet unfounded concerns about his new friend; he clearly doesn't want to argue when he returns home, so he remains silent at Keyleth's questions. Still, he comes home to her in good spirits, so Keyleth tries not to let her worry show too much.

All this may be her fault, after all, at least a little. The day she spoke with Vex in person, she came home to tell him of their encounter with the elder bear. "The bear thinks Vex can break the curse herself," Keyleth tells him. "And she seems to be doing all right, she seems very strong."

Vax, who began the conversation elated by the news that Keyleth had seen his twin in the flesh, furrows his brow. "What does that mean, that she can break the curse? How?"

"I don't know," she admits. "The words were very vague. I wanted a bit more direction, but there's no way to push the spirits for better advice. But Vex seemed to understand a little."

"What did she say?"

"Nothing about that. We didn't have much time. I got the feeling they didn't want … their master," she settles on, for lack of a better word, "to know what they were doing." 

The reminder of the monster causes Vax's shoulders to slump. "And she's still a prisoner of that thing, so nothing has changed, no matter what kind of vague words the spirits of the forest have to offer." 

Keyleth wants to comfort him, to give him some measure of hope. But here and now, after a lonely trip back through the forest, she can't find any faith in the elder bear's words. The castle's monster still has Vex, and she still doesn't know how that could change. Later, she'll wish she'd lied, that she'd told him she believed Vex could save herself. But in the moment, all she can say is, "I know, Vax. I know."

Days pass, and then weeks. Vax comes home late some nights, exhausted and carrying the smell of stale air and dust. Keyleth tries not to think too much about what he is doing. She doesn't often succeed. 

One night, she asks again. “You’re not doing anything dangerous,right?” She is tempted to say something far more prying, but she's tried that before, and it only leads to defensiveness. Now she is simply scared for his safety. Clearly, there is something going on. 

With a tired sigh, Vax settles down at the wash basin and quietly begins to clean the dark streaks from his skin. For several long moments, the only sound in their hut is the splashing of water and the low crackling of firewood. Then, finally, he speaks. “I know you worry. And I promise, we work as safely as we can, Kiki. But please, don’t ask me to stop. I want my sister back.” Those last words are a rough whisper, one that she recognizes all too well now. Even with this low light, even in absolute darkness Keyleth knows that there are tears in his eyes. 

She doesn’t have the strength or resolve to argue this further after that. It hurts too much to see him like this, to hear his voice crack like brittle glass. The shards cut deep, even in the ensuing silence and she can only go to him and wrap her arms around him to staunch the bleeding. “We’ll get her back.” Her own voice matches his, dry and hoarse and breaking around the edges.  

Vax wins. They don’t speak any more of his absences after that.

Until one night, he is absent far longer than usual. Keyleth sits up waiting for him while her candle burns down to a puddle of molten wax, worry eating away at her insides. They have spent so much time together that she’s grown to care for him, more than she might want to admit at times. Now it seems like her worst fears are coming true, and she doesn’t even know where to look for him - but she does know where to ask. It’s with the first rays of the morning sun falling through her windows that Keyleth gathers her resolve to head out into town. 

She doesn’t have to go far. When she steps out onto her porch, the early morning mist gently wrapping its tendrils around her ankles, a movement on the road leading to her farm catches her attention. Then she is off, running at full speed towards the stumbling figures of Vax and Grog. 

“I’m sorry, I should have listened to you,” is the first thing she hears from Vax when she comes to a stop in front of them. Her first instinct is to look him over, to touch and make sure that he is alright but he gently guides her attention to Grog. There’s a garish wound across his ribs, and he looks like he lost a lot of blood but the big man grins down at her and Keyleth knows he’ll be alright. 

“Let’s get him inside… what happened, Vax?”

"Let's get him inside first." Between them, Keyleth and Vax manage to help Grog into the house. As Keyleth fetches her tinctures and bandages, Vax starts speaking again, his voice low and urgent. "We've been clearing the old mining tunnels," he says, "me and Grog and a few other guys that Ripley hired. They're in terrible shape, but there's a small side tunnel that leads directly onto the castle grounds, because the de Rolo family used to own the mines, and one of the old lords used to like to come check on the work. At least, that's what Ripley said, she found some old family documents somewhere. It's been tough work, and some of the other guys have gotten injured. Grog and I have been lucky. Until now."

"It weren't digging that got me," Grog grunts, as Keyleth works to clean his wound. And it's true, his injury doesn't look like it came from falling rocks or even from falling on rocks. It looks … well, it looks more like a wound from a blade. 

Vax makes a distressed noise; when Keyleth looks over at him, she sees a piece of crumpled paper in his hand, flecked with blood. He clutches it as if it's a lifeline. "She's been letting me lead, she doesn't like to be down in the tunnels for too long herself. We finished tonight, we cleared the last corridor, and I went back to the entrance to fetch Ripley. I'm not dumb enough to run ahead on my own, not without backup - not that you're not plenty of backup for most situations, big guy," he says, when Grog grunts at him, "but Ripley's good with a blade, and she's the one with the magical knowledge, which we'd need to get past the monster."

Keyleth finishes bandaging Grog and turns back to Vax, dread nearly making her sick to her stomach. "What happened?"

"I went to her little office, an abandoned shack near the mine entrance. There was a new book with all the maps, a journal. I was curious, I wondered if it was another de Rolo family find. But this one was Ripley's own journal. And …"  He trails off, and instead thrusts the crumpled paper at Keyleth. She takes it and smooths it out - it's a page torn from a journal, and she begins to read the cramped handwriting.

_ … nearly complete. After years of searching, the creature is within my grasp. I don't believe I should have any issues convincing the demon to join me, not if it's been stuck this long with a spoiled boy who refuses to use its power, and even actively fights against it. All my research tells me it's an unusually intelligent demon, so it will see the worth in having a willing vessel. It will have souls, and I will have my revenge.  _

_ I've fashioned a device that will collapse the tunnel behind me, that should take care of the crew. I'm sure the demon will gladly take care of its former host and his prisoner. We should be able to travel back to Wildemount within a matter of days. I think ... _

The writing ends. Keyleth drops the paper without realizing it, as she looks up at Vax. "We have to-"

"Yes." Vax is pacing now, glancing toward the door with every step. "She discovered me reading the journal. She drew her sword on me, Grog stepped between us and took the blow. She has - she has magic of some sort," Vax says, "something that kept me from touching her. But when she reached for the journal, I kept hold of this page. She ran back into the mine, and I had to choose between following her and helping Grog. And I -" He looks at Grog, then at Keyleth. "I've learned my lesson. I need help. Going through the mine would be folly, if she's rigged something inside. We need the forest. We need you."

Keyleth is already moving, even before he speaks. "We'll take the horses. Grog, you can -"

"Go with you, if you have a third horse, otherwise I'll be running behind." The large man stands, with only a slight wince. "I'm in this now. I don't know anything about magic and demons, but I can still bash some skulls together if you need it." 

She nods at him. "Vax, go saddle three horses. I'm going to grab some supplies. I don't know if my sort of magic will help, but I'll be ready just in case." 

Five minutes later, the three are mounted and ride toward the forest's edge. Keyleth doesn't stop when she reaches the trees; instead, she simply shouts into the night. "Let us pass! Elder, we need to get to the castle! They're in danger, the castle is in danger, we need to warn them! We're friends, all three of us, please let us pass!" 

There is no audible response, but neither are they stopped, so Keyleth can only continue on and hope. "We're coming, Vex," she murmurs as she rides. "Hold on, we're coming."


End file.
